2 Year Mantle Project

[Lud]

My friend and customer asked me over to come up with a design for their den.  I drew up  plan and his wife approved.  Since he likes to be involved with these projects I had him down to  the farm to drop the standing dead poplar tree and we sawed and stacked it in the barn to dry.  Took 3 of us to move the 4" x 14" x14' stick.

This last spring , after a year and a half of drying,  we  two could move it upstairs in the barn for trimming, sanding ,  and finishing with his choice of stain and surface.  The poplar was light enough and we planned 4 verticals below and 4 above to frame in the chimney.  I predrilled them for glass shelves if they ever want that feature.

This Fall , we hauled it up to his house and got it in without too much trouble.  He was now adding an insert to the draughty fireplace and so we hustled to pick a nice little tile to cover the old brick over cement board.  They upgraded to a granite hearth along the way.

Lud's Woodworking and Lud's Tilesetting are two seperate entities, by the way!  He hasn't got that bill yet....six hours on your knees,  whoosh!

The folks are real happy and she has a place for all her Santas.  Enjoy the pics.

Here's the set of sticks




Finishing




The "Before"




The tile




The insert and hearth granite




And somehow I got in this last shot.




Took a long time but everyone's happy! 8)

[WDH]

Dang, I would be happy too, Lud  8).  That is very striking.  Everything is very complementary!

[Radar67]

Looks good Lud, very nice work.

[fishpharmer]

It was worth the wait, a vast improvent in look and design.

[Don K]

Very nice!!!!!

Don

[SwampDonkey]

Nice work Lud, a man deserves a pick with his work to show his pride. 

[JohnG28]

Very nice work.  8)

[Texas Ranger]

Very good work.  Here is one of mine.





The owners had red cedar cut from Grandpa's land, in a barn for several years, dry as a bone.  All 4x6 so had to laminate for the risers and mantle.

It is great for a customer to turn a project over to you to do your thing, and hang around to help.  I have as much fun teacher the folks as I do doing the work.

[Lud]

Nice work, TR.  Is that stone or tile around the opening?  I like a strong contrast for the fire to be seen against.

That's why I had the owner paint the brick black behind  the TV.  Creates a shadow behind the screen.  Then he agreed to paint lower left and right black also to enhance the focus on the  center tile and hearth since the insert would be the black around the fire.

We were lucky to find a limestone and glass tile mix.  Many of the glass tiles are irredescent and the differing lights give the fireplace an interesting twinkle.

[Texas Ranger]

Marble tile, Lud, and the entire wall above the fire place was the same tile.  Super look, but I was concerned about the heat of the fire place on the cedar, so far so good.

[metalspinner]

Beautiful work, guys!

Lud, kudos to the person who chose the tile.   The small square tile real stands out and is a nice design feature. 

[Lud]

My customer had picked a similar tile off the wall that had some metal blocks in the mix and no iredescents .  I found the tile we got and it was $5 cheaper a sq. ft. too!

Got to listen to that cheap gene! 8)

[clww]

That looks super 8) 8) 8)