How I Made a $200 Mantle Shelf for ONLY $35!
My formal living room always felt incomplete to me. I had a large painting over the couch for a while that someone had given me but it wasn't really my style. Eventually I took it down and replaced is with a framed tapestry (also a hand me down) but that didn't really fit the wall. It was much too small. I finally decided I wanted to put a large mantle along the length of the couch.
I looked online for a mantle but everything I saw for the length I wanted was $200! That is excessive for a floating shelf if you ask me.
So instead I went to Home Depot and got a 4 by 6 beam. This cost $18. I sanded the beam with a high grit sander to give it some texture and remove the top layer of treated wood.
Then I used solid white indoor/outdoor stain from Arborcoat (Benjamin Moore). This is the same stain I used for several of my past project (see previous posts) including my deck upgrade. I think it is the perfect paint for any sort of wood. However, I think any left over white paint would work!
I only did one coat on the entirety of the beam because I wanted the "rustic" look.
I purchased these brackets from Amazon as Home Depot didn't carry them! They had something simular with a curved end which would not work since I wanted the brackets as a L against the wall rather then pointing down like a r. I also think it is more stable to hang it in this direction.
Make sure to land in a beam! I used stud finders to make sure I was screwing into a beam. This piece of wood is WAY to heavy to lay on sheetrock alone!
After that all that was left was to decorate for the season!
I finally have the perfect wall decor for the room!
I've been getting a lot of questions about how the brackets are connected so here is a picture of the bracket from the bottom of the mantle. The other side of the L is behind the mantle connected to the beams in the wall.
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GREAT IDEA- but- you could have done it much lighter weight-- thinner board-- with face front & ends of lathe board to create the ILLUSION of thickness without the heaviness ... BRAVO on the over all look! ---
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Love it. Great job
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Lovely addition! Really added some pizazz to the living room. Did I miss where the brackets were also attached to new mantle for safety reasons?
do you have a picture of how you did the brackets ? I'm a little confused. I love it.