Faux Beam Mantel

This mantel was made to look like a real beam hanging on the fireplace. Instead, it’s a hollowed box that slips over a frame. To make it look less like a box and more like a beam, I preserved the end grain on all of the boards, including a crack on one of the boards. The stain was a two part process so that I could better match the beams on our ceiling and other surrounding furniture. The first stain color was jacobean and the second was an ebony. The final topcoat was two coats of matte waterbased polyurethane applied with a foam roller. The frame is secured to the fireplace with 6 tapcon screws. The mantel slips over the frame and is secured to the frame brackets with a few screws.