Making a mantel

Wow. Over a year since I've posted anything. I guess I'm just not cut out to blog. Oh well.

We moved into a house that has a fireplace but no mantel. The fireplace itself can't be used because I have no idea when the chimney was last cleaned (probably never, knowing the useless landlady and the past tenants) and the flue is stuck open. I don't feel like messing with it but I still wanted a mantel shelf to decorate for holidays and to make the space looking more finished.

After months of looking, I realized that I can't afford an actual mantel nor am I willing to spend that kind of money on a rental home. I also looked around for a large enough pre-made shelf and only found prohibitively expensive pieces or crappy stuff. So I decided to make it myself.

I purchased a 54" 2x6, a set of brackets and some stain. I think I spent all of $27 and here are the results:

Using a foam brush was a good choice. Especially since the brackets are scrolled and hard to get into the creases. The foam was able to smoosh the stain in and nothing dripped or ran like it would with a regular paint brush. 

After staining, I applied some acrylic fixative I had from a different project. I don't like using polyurethane because it drips and makes it too shiny. I liked the rustic look of the wood. 

Here's the finished result. I had purchased a bunch of masonry screws to affix the shelf into the wall but ended up not needing them. The brackets are sturdy enough to hold up the shelf and I don't plan on putting anything heavy on it anyway. 

And here's the reason for all this work. A garland I'd made for the fireplace in our old condo:

There we have it. Simple, inexpensive and it does what I need it to do. :)