Our 200-Year-Old Fireplace Mantel

We want our new home to look like it’s been around forever! So, we are incorporating a few old doors in the plans, along with our old fireplace mantels.

I wanted all antique fireplace mantels. They had to be HUGE. I received an email about two 100-plus-year-old mantels in Tennessee that were taken from an old home. We made a flying trip down there to grab them. Well… we were one short. I was searching on the Facebook Marketplace for antique mantels and one popped up here in Ohio. It was an antique that was over 200 years old and 100″ long and at a great price!

The 200-year-old mantel was located about 2 hours from us. We traveled 6-1/2 hours for both of the other ones and 6-1/2 hours to grab our pantry doors in Tennessee. Two hours seemed like a short ride!

This mantel was pulled from a home built in 1796, that was destroyed by a tornado sometime in 2012. I believe the home had 5 fireplaces and anything that could be salvaged was. The lady told me that she had sold the other ones and I believe this was the last one.

This fireplace mantel was in ROUGH shape and needed so much work. So we decided to try to use it for our real wood burning mantel in the family room. And I’m proud to say that the 200-year-old fireplace mantel is home!

This was a long process. There is so much detail on this fireplace mantel that was covered up with layers and layers of paint: beige, teal, gold, and white to be exact. Deb decided that stripping the paint off of it would make it look so much better. So one Saturday, she grabbed the heat gun and got to work. This project moved on in to Sunday, which was when she said she had enough. I took over for several hours using the heat gun to melt the pant and a small paint scraper to dig in all of the little crevices.

It is also pretty rickety. So after about 750 hours of stripping off the paint, Deb had to put it all back together. She was very meticulous about each piece of trim. She made sure that they were stripped and sanded and looked the best they could being as old as they were.

We were originally going to paint this mantel. After stripping it, though, we both wanted to leave it unfinished or simply add a sealer to it. But during the repairs, Deb had to use different products that won’t take the stain like real wood will. Note the gray patches. They will be very noticeable.

Our friend, Joyce LOVES faux painting and does a phenomenal job. She agreed to come and work on our fireplace mantel and faux paint all of those bad spots.

I watched her technique a bit and she has a true gift. She matched a color of paint close the the actual wood color. By adding different lighter and darker tones to it, she covered up all of those gray patch spots. And then, using a smaller artist brush, she added wood grains to those areas and feathered it in to blend with the rest of the mantel.

We are absolutely in love with the finished product and the character it adds to the room.

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