Mantel Statement Piece
It all started when we found an old door on the side of the road. I never feel that I find anything worth picking up on the side of the road, but my brother had seen it and when he pointed it out to me I knew I wanted it! I’d been looking for a statement piece to put over my new mantel but not the typical mirror stuff. I wanted something BIG and different. And yep, I think I got both with this awesome old door.
Todays post is less of a DIY and more of a let-me-share-this-with-you post! 🙂
So originally the door looked in perfect condition, but when we brought it home I realized that the whole top portion was rotted. I guess that was okay since I couldn’t put the whole door above my mantel, but it felt like such a shame. The awesome thing was that none of the glass panels were broken. So we set out to cut out the rotted portion and pull out the glass panels that we didn’t need.
The more we looked at it though, the more we realized just how fragile it was! I’m not sure how it survived being thrown out on the side of the road.
Once I’d taken all the rotted part out, I took about two rows of window panels out. That left 3 rows and the door kick - which was exactly the size of my mantel. I thought about cutting the door kick off, but I liked the dissymmetry of it all. Statement, right? haha. After that it was just time to glue the shaky pieces together. I used the same Glue Nails that I used for making the DIY picnic table. That stuff is SOLID. I mean why ever use nails?? Just kidding, you need nails too but STILL it’s realllly strong. I cleaned the panels REALLY good several times and then thought about maybe staining the wood. BUT I really liked the old wood look so instead I just used some wood polish to clean it up a bit and make it richer.
When I finally brought it to my apt to place above the mantel, I used these awesome frame hanging things that I found at a home improvement store. They’re awesome since they have a built in leveler (I sometimes suck at making things level, oops lol). So I put one on each side and drilled the others into the wall. Then with a little elbow grease I stuck it in place and tadaa! A statement piece over my faux fireplace. It is huge though. When Ashley my roommate saw it she said, Wow, that’s big. haha 🙂 She puts up with my crazy ideas though.
Added a little fall/thanksgiving decor and done!
Can’t wait to decorate it for Christmas though! That’s what I’m really holding out for. So whadda you think?
Would you ever use a door as art? 🙂 Happy hump day!
