Dismantling the Mantle

Before I show you our demo project, let's rewind a couple steps. Our big project lately has been our fireplace. Since we've moved in, all we've done is paint over the hideous pink that was here before. Other than that it's been left relatively untouched, waiting for its turn.

Originally, I was really hoping to do some sort of limestone look (like this). However, after searching around for a good price and look, it seemed hopeless. So we went back to the drawing board. I really like this look here, and thought about how it could warm up the space (especially since we have all hardwood floors surrounding the area). So after we Mike did some extensive research on the best materials/pricing/look, we found Air Stone at Lowe's. Here's a couple pictures from our shopping adventure. We bought a lot (Tip: always measure your space so you can calculate how much to buy - plus waste too which is normally 10% of the total)!

 

 

Lowe's have two color ways. We chose the Autumn Mountain since our walls are tan. Air Stone also has its own adhesive, so we bought the appropriate amount for our square footage. So we had a really big (and heavy) cart... 

 

 

Now on to actually dismantling the mantle! I don't actually know if there's a step-by-step process because we did what worked for us. First, Mike hammered the flat top of the mantle upward to loosen the nails securing it to the base.

 

 

After creating a gap between the mantle top and base, he wedged a screwdriver in between. Hammering the screwdriver in between allowed us to remove the first part of the base (Note: Before trying to take off the mantle, look to see how its secured. We did this and tried to work backwards from there to get to the root place where the mantle was secured onto the wall). The picture below shows Mike wedging the screwdriver in between the top and first part of the base.

 

 

 

 

 

The base of the mantle had a decorative piece on top of the base that was actually secured to the wall. See above the picture of the decorative part taken off. After that was taken off, Mike used the screwdriver and hammer again to create a gap between the top of the mantle and the second part of the base. You can see it hanging on the one side ...I think I was supposed to be holding that. Picture taking was clearly my priority.

 

 

 

After the last part of the base was taken off, all that was left was the top and the blocks of wood secured to the wall (The base had been secured to these blocks).

 

  

 

With most of the mantle already dismantled (had to say it!), Mike was able to easily slide off the top. It was snug on the wall, but it slid!

 

 

 The last step was to take the blocks off the wall, which Mike did with  the backside of a hammer.

 

 

 

 

 

And so this is how our fireplace looked without the mantle. Kind of naked, right? But that space just couldn't handle the mantle. It was my height and pretty dangerous when walking past because of the pointy edges. Plus it broke up the line of sight from the floor to ceiling. Can't wait to show you guys the next step!!

 

P.S. That red paper on the floor was to protect the floor from any debris.