Oak Mantle

[tiralie]

Another recent project.
This is an Oak Mantle for a clients great room. They had an existing mantle of solid hemlock (see below) that was rough hewn and was originally stained dark brown but then was painted grey. The client hated the grey and felt the look (rough hewn) was not appropriate for the room which is mostly formal with a mixture of trim and cabinetry styles.
This was the sketchup drawing I showed the client.
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and the sketchup drawing superimposed over a picture of the fireplace
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This is the original before I installed the new one
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and my new mantle
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here is a detail of the right side
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and detail of the underside. I originally wanted to use a RAS to fit the underside to the stone but none were available so I used my Bosch grinder. Way too much saw dust.
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This is a view of the top of the Mantle from the second floor balcony.

 

[nickao]

Simple and elegant design, nice! The original was whack!

 

[tiralie]

Simple and elegant design, nice! The original was whack!

Thanks!
Simple design seemed to work for the room.
There was a s**t load (molding and cabinetry) of styles competing for attention in this room.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Although I've never been a fan of red oak, very nice work.  Looks like a really good tight scribe.

 

[nickao]

Is the  original wrapped with the new one or did you take it out? It looks like you took it out, but it's tough to tell.

 

[tiralie]

Is the  original wrapped with the new one or did you take it out? It looks like you took it out, but it's tough to tell.

Yep, the original is wrapped with the new one.
I used strapping attached to the inside of the new mantle and wrapped it around the old one. (see below)

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I cut the ends off the original so the new one could fit as closely to the stone as possible. The mantle is over 9.5 feet long and I wanted to use as large a crown molding as possible without hitting the molding around the windows on the left and right hand side.
The client told me the original mantle (solid wood) was carried in by 3-4 guys and it would probably be difficult for me to remove.
In the end I still had to attach the original mantle to wall (studs) as it just rested on top of the stone. It tipped forward when I tested it before I installed my mantle.

We'll see how well the oak top stands up to the sun (cupping?) from the right window.

 

[nickao]

Nice job you would never know it was under there.