The Mantle Refurb

I recently posted about our house, displaying a ridiculous amount of photos of it.  I didn’t show too much of our mantle/fireplace area because I knew this post was coming. This area of our house needs some major remodeling, but we’re going to have to wait for a while before we can get to it.  When we were doing the major clean-up before we moved in, one thing I did was paint the brick fireplace a clean white, which really helped.  I couldn’t get past the mantle- it has been used and loved and now, as you can see below, it is covered with scratches and wear and tear.  I have longed for a mantle for years, but was a bit deflated with this one because it is just plain tired.  And who can blame it?   It’s probably about as old as I am!

Before:  tired, scratched, worn, you get the idea

(Do you like the Kleenex boxes stacked to the left of the clock?  I think we were winding up a “sickie” phase at the time of sewing.  And those are Anna’s play cupcakes to the left.)

I headed to our local Home Fabrics store.  That place is dangerous!  I bought a ridiculous amount of fabric and got to sewing.  I am so (sew) happy with the end result.  It was really easy, too- I’d show a tutorial or something but I was too dang excited to get this thing on and I didn’t take any pictures.  I love how it hangs, how it looks, etc.  I thought I might have to hot glue it on there, but the frames and such seem to be holding it on just perfect.  The other thing I did (not shown) was I sewed a secret pocket on one end to stash our keys for the gas fire-place.  They were always hidden behind a frame and I was worried they would get lost.

After:

Basically I cut a realllllly long piece of the fabric to cover both the top and the overhang.  I finished the sides and then folded them over and hemmed them.  Then I cut two squares for the ends and sewed it all together.  Hooray for improvisation!  Now we just need to decide what to hang above the mantle.  Someday maybe we’ll have a flat screen up there, but for now….  Any ideas?