While living in my house in Richmond, we were installing extra storage and shelving everywhere because the house didn't have any! For the kitchen, we put up really pretty white shelves and wanted to hang a big butcher-block-type bar under them that could be used as extra counter space in regular life and a bar when entertaining. The search began for this "butcher-block-type" piece of wood that didn't cost the same as my mortgage! We soon found out that wasn't very easy to do....we looked at lumber stores, thrift stores, restoration places...nothing had anything big enough and within our price range. When we had all but given up, we found a salvage yard run by a man who would go into old Richmond homes after they were gutted to be remodeled and bring all the gorgeous old fixtures, wood, moulding, etc. back to his store. We ended up finding the top wooden piece from a mantel from an old Richmond mansion buried under a whole lot of other "scrap" wood. We bought it for $75, brought it home, and Luke started sanding away the years of wear and tear (and paint). Fast forward a couple months, Luke moved to Chicago and I was left with this block of wood. Needless to say it was never hung in Richmond and somehow made it's way to Chicago with us.
We planned to just pay someone to come in and hang it for us, but that project was pretty low on our list. I had gotten over my blank fireplace and put the project out of my mind until last weekend, when we invited our neighbors in for some tea while everyone was out cleaning our yard. Our architect neighbor saw the wood, raved over how beautiful it is and asked what we were planning to do with it. We told him the story and he volunteered to help us cut it with some very fancy tools (Luke was most excited about the sawzall). We are very lucky to have such wonderful and knowledgable neighbors. So Luke and Matthew set everything up in the basement, cut the wood down, and then Matthew talked Luke through how to actually hang it. Below is how they did it! Huge, huge, huge, thank you to Matthew for helping us.
Here is the before! A bit boring, and how in the world would I decorate for Christmas??
The block of wood preparing to be cut to fit between the brick. You can see the nail holes where it was attached to a fireplace before.
They set the wood up for easier access.
Luke, measuring twice, cutting once! hehe
We found the wrought iron brackets at a plant nursery. They were supposed to be for window boxes or planers but we drilled a couple extra holes in them and they work perfectly.
Luke bought all kinds of new toys, including a drill bit that could drill through the brick. It was pretty cool to learn about actually.
Blurry, but a man proud of his awesome work! I am so excited by how well it turned out!
Side view of the brackets and pretty wood.
All decorated! Omgosh I am so excited! Now we have a piece a Richmond here in Chicago. :)
Very cool! We just bought an apartment a few weeks ago, and will be changing up the fireplace as well. Putting up a mantle is exactly what we are looking to do! Looks great! Excited to see the end result :)
ReplyDeleteSo exciting, Ana! The mantle makes SUCH a difference. I am so glad we did it. Can't wait to see what you do with yours! :)
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