DIY - Build A Fireplace Mantle - It's All Small Stuff

diy build a fire place mantle When we first moved into our new home, we had a nice wood burning fireplace with tile around it. but no mantel, instead it was just a wood trim frame similar to floor baseboards. While I liked the tile, I wanted to do a really nice fireplace mantel. This article will go into a DIY project for building a fireplace mantle. Any DIYer with beginner to intermediate skills can tackle this project in a weekend.

This mantel took me almost a week to do, but i was only working 2 to 3 hours a day on it. This is a truely DIY fire place mantel that the average DIYer could handle. (see the link to the plans at the bottom of this article)

This DIY fire place mantle looks like it's solid wood! It's really MDF board cut into various pieces and assembled. I used several different types of crown molding and a wood shelf for the top. All topped off with a fire retardant white paint. If you're a weekend warrior, you could knock out this DIY fire place mantle in 1 weekend (working 6 to 8 hours each day on it (maybe less if you're extremely handy).

Here are some tips:

Take your time, overall, this project does not take a lot of time to do, but if you don't take you're time, you could end up with a mantel that is way off center
Read the directions all the way through before starting, this will help you understand how it all comes together before you start.
If you don't have pneumatic tools, borrow a pneumatic nail gun from a friend or rent one. This project is 100 times easier with a pneumatic nail gun than just a hammer and nails.
Let your wife pick out the trim. You'll be very happy with the final project, so let her pick out the trim. She'll be happy that she had a hand in helping and maybe even offer to help you paint it (my wife did).
If you don't know how to cut crown molding so that the pieces fit together, ask your friends to see if someone can show you how. If you don't, you'll be very frustrated and on top of the frustration, you'll spend a lot more money than needed buying additional trim.

We have had this mantel up for over a year and a half and every time we have a party, there is always someone there so impressed with it that they don't believe I built it from scratch. It really does come out beautifully.