Fireplace Mantel

Neither of us want to use the wood mantel that was originally on our fireplace.  The wood is weird and soft.  It grosses me out...gives me the heeby jeebies.  So we were just going to buy a chunk of wood...that's the technical name for it right...chunk?  And then stain it a dark brown.  But then our wheels got to turning.

What if we built a mantel with this technique...



pic from here

It wouldn't cover the whole fireplace like they did, but just a mantel made of stacked wood of different stained colors.

Or what if we got an old barn beam or other reclaimed wood with age and history and sanded and stained it??  Something like this...



pic from here

Reason #152 why I have an amazing husband: I thought I remembered driving by an architectural salvage yard in the Winter Park, FL area years ago.  I can still picture it in my mind.  But I researched online for hours and could find no mention of it.  While we were out running errands...I asked hubby if we could just drive around and see if we drove by it.  And he agreed folks!  So we just drove up and down streets in Winter Park for who knows how long.  And we did NOT find it.  Must of been a dream.  What does it mean when you dream about architectural salvage stores?  Hmm.

But we did find this little amazing cute place... 1618 Something Different



check it out here



Then I remembered that Cortney Novogratz went there in this episode of Home by Novogratz (fast forward to 13 min to see the store).

We loved looking at all the vintage retro furniture!  I kept thinking "my parents use to have end tables like that" and "my grandparents have a dresser just like that in their house right now."  And if my mom can figure out how to email a picture to me...I might have a blog post about that in the future.  Luv ya mom...but really...pretty sure I've explained that whole email attachment process to you about a bazillion times.  And that is why I have designated my hubby as our friendly family technical support.  Cuz I cain't handle it no mo'.  Smiles.

Anyways...back to the fun retro furniture.  I love the look of a lot of the vintage furniture, but I wouldn't know how to incorporate it into our current design and current furniture.  That is where it is plain to see that I am not an interior decorator (insert sad face here).

I think we'll be making a trip to Deland to visit this fun little place in a couple weeks.  Hoping to find an old chunk of wood there :-)