Mantel Madness: Measuring Up

Guess what we started working on yesterday?

Game face.

Yep, we were itching to get started on the over-mantel project.  We wanted to get the wall marked to our dimensions and record all the measurements we'd need so we'd have a good idea of how much wood to buy at the hardware store.

There's a column.

Really, that's all we did, though.  Marking and talking to make sure the picture in my head matched the picture in Steve's head and that we were on the same page about how it would be accomplished and what to do about the details like what type of crown to use and how thick to make it and does it matter to us if it runs exactly up to the ceiling.

One of the benefits of marrying someone who's 6'4".

This part of kicking off a project is always so tedious.  And dangerous- this is the point at which disagreements always seem to come out.  But it's also super-helpful.  As we were talking through the depth from the outer edge of the mantel to the inset in the overmantel, we realized we had a small problem.  How were we going to secure the mantel to the wall and still have it be sturdy enough for me to put pretty stuff on it without risk of it pulling out of the wall?  With our new plan, the mantel would need to sit a little over 2 inches further away from the wall than it did before.  We talked about and sketched up a few ideas.  Anything would could think of would end up being difficult, look funny, or wouldn't totally eliminate the problem.  So we came to the conclusion that it would be easier for Steve to make a new mantel to fit than to try to find a way to creatively attach the existing one.  Don't worry though, we found a spot to still use Steve's mantel (more on that later)!

The result of our efforts was pencil sketches all over our wall.

Shaping up!

And a notepad full of measurements.

Yes, I misspelled columns.

We're ready for the hardware store!