Jess Runs: March 2021

How to Build and Install a DIY Floating Mantel

by Jess - Monday, March 22, 2021

When we bought our house, I was so excited that it had a fireplace, but I was kind of surprised that it didn't have a mantel. I mean where are you supposed to hang stockings at Christmas if your fireplace doesn't have a mantel?

Installing a mantel quickly went on my list of house projects. But after shopping around and looking at countless options, I couldn't find anything that was the right dimensions for a price I was willing to pay.

So I started looking into DIY options. After a bunch of research, it seemed that building a mantel was actually fairly easy. And after watching several YouTube videos, I was convinced installing it wouldn't be that hard either.

So off to the hardware store I went to get my supplies.

Here's what I needed:

To build the mantel:

3 1"x6"x6' poplar boards
1 1"x6"x2' poplar board
Wood stain
Polyurethane
Wood glue
Finishing nails

To install the mantel:

1 6-foot long 2x4
4 lag bolts
Finishing nails
Masonry drill bit
Level
Stud finder

Once I got everything home, I had to wait until the weather cooperated so that I could work on staining the wood outside. And just my luck, we had an incredibly rainy/snowy/icy February. So the staining process took a long time.

My goal was three coats of stain and three coats of polyurethane to make sure it was sealed.

Because the weather was uncooperative, I actually ended up assembling the mantel on a snowy weekend and then finished with the polyurethane once the weather was nicer again. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this approach since it's easier to stain the separate pieces of wood, but it worked out just fine.

Assembly was definitely a two-person, two-day job.

Day one was attaching the wood with the wood glue.

We started with the three 6-foot panels. We determined which piece looked nicest and decided that would be the front piece, and then used the two other pieces for what would be the top and bottom.

We laid everything out on the floor, ran a very thin line of wood glue along the front panel, and then attached the two other pieces of wood.

While you could manage this with one person, it definitely helped to have two sets of hands to get everything lined up properly and apply even pressure.

We used random items from around the house -- like the stain can -- to ensure the top and bottom pieces stayed perpendicular, and we used hand weights to keep the pressure on the wood over night so the glue could set.

The last thing we did was fit the end pieces. We took the 2-foot long poplar board, and measured the openings on each end of the mantel once the pieces were glue in place. Then we cut that board, glued it in place and topped it with another weight to hold it down over night.

(Pro tip: We don't have a saw at home, but if you take a piece of wood to Ace Hardware, they will do simple cuts for you. So hat tip to our neighborhood Ace for helping us with this step).

The next day we took off all the weights, flipped the mantel over and used the finishing nails to finish connecting the pieces of wood.

And just like that, the mantel was built.

To actually install it on our wall, we called in the professionals -- aka my dad -- because I was nervous abut drilling through the stone tile around the fireplace. I had these horrible visions of tile shattering and the whole wall crumbling.

I figured with my dad's experience and his slightly better quality tools, we'd be able to avoid a total disaster.

The hardest part about installing the mantel was actually finding the studs. Because there was tile over the dry wall neither of the two stud finders we used could reliably find where a stud was. So my dad decided to drill a pilot hole and see if he could locate a stud. He found one eventually, and from there was able to measure and find three more studs that we could use to anchor the mantel.

From there, he drilled the four holes wide enough that the lag bolts could fit.

Once we found the stud locations, we took the 2x4 and lined it up along the wall, marking on the wood where each of the studs were. Then we drilled the accompanying holes in the wood.

Finally it was time to actually attach the 2x4 to the wall with the lag bolts. We used 4-inch lag bolts to get through the 2x4, tile, dry wall and securely into the stud. We loosely screwed in the lag bolts, checking to make sure the 2x4 was level before securing them tightly.

Lastly, we installed the mantel on top of the 2x4. We lined it up so it would be centered on the wall, and then attached it to the 2x4 with several finishing nails.

And now we have a really beautiful mantel that I'm incredibly proud of!

No comments

Reflections on a Year in a Pandemic

by Jess - Monday, March 15, 2021

One year ago, we bought our first house. We closed on a Friday, moved in on Monday and by Tuesday were bracing for lockdowns.

The last time we had a drink in a bar, celebrating closing on our house.

Those two things will forever be linked in my brain. Before moving, I remembered that my goal was to be settled enough to have a house-warming party the first weekend of April.

On the day of the move, the man in charge of our moving crew shook my hand when he arrived. It seemed normal for a minute, until I remembered thinking maybe we shouldn't have done that. It still wasn't a completely crazy thing to do -- but it would become just that very soon.

As we settled into the house, we also attempted to adjust to pandemic life. My husband has a job that requires him to be in the office. In those early days, he worked 7 days per week, 12+ hours per day. Easter Sunday was his first day off in more than a month.

Our celebratory Easter dinner

We were both constantly worried he was going to bring covid home to me. He'd get home from work, change and take a shower before really saying hi. He slept in the guest bedroom for months -- I think maybe until June.

And despite all of that, we have been incredibly lucky throughout this pandemic. So far, neither of us has gotten sick -- a small miracle considering there were cases early on at my husband's work. No one in our immediate families have gotten sick either, and most of our immediate friends and families are still healthy and employed.

Our hardships this past year have been small in comparison to so many families who have lost loved ones or who have lost jobs, businesses, livelihoods.

And yet, as we live through a period of time that will be written and studied in history books, I find it important to reflect on and document the changes from this year. In my life, these have been smaller-scale losses -- friends' weddings rescheduled or canceled, the inability to visit family or hold our friends' new babies. It's the loss of in-person races or gathering with friends to watch sports or the ability to travel freely.

In the grand scheme of things, individually these are all small losses, but taken together, they are the stuff that make up the fabric of our lives.

And because I don't want to look back on this year and only remember the bad, there have been a few small, simple things that I have come to appreciate in a way I probably never would have before.

I've come to appreciate not having every minute of my weekends booked up with plans. These days a walk or a hike with a friend is probably the highlight of my entire weekend, and I value that time so much more than I did pre-pandemic.

I've discovered new parks and new trails and have come to embrace a more exploratory mindset when all my typical go-to social activities are off limits. I've learned to appreciate and enjoy a quick day trip instead of a far-flung vacation across the ocean.

These little things became more important and significant because a lot of our typical big things were gone.

And as much as I cannot wait for covid case numbers to decrease and normal life to resume again, I hope to carry the appreciation for these small things with me and remember that just because I can schedule a million really fun things all at once, I don't always have to.