When we bought our house, one thing it did not have was a fireplace mantle. Of any kind. There were 8″ square white tiles around it and on the floor as a “hearth”. After 13 years, it was time to change. We ripped out the carpeting and pulled up the tile. I replaced it with 3″ off white, tumble stone tiles. The fireplace had a large flat black sheet metal apron above the grate that looked awful. After looking at the specs for safety concerns, I tiled over it as well.
One evening, I made a simple (simple!) floating shelf that was up for a year over the fireplace. Kim was ecstatic to have something. We both knew it was a temporary measure as we decided what we wanted.
Eventually, we decided on a mission inspired design. The twist was, as with most things I build, Kim wanted to be able to put lights on the shelf, but would NOT tolerate visible wires. No cords running off the shelf and down the wall to an outlet.
