I recently installed a barn wood mantel to my freshly ship lapped fireplace.

At least it LOOKS like a vintage barn wood beam! It’s actually a hollow ambrosia maple floating shelf.

I LOVE my ship lapped fireplace, but it was desperately needing a mantel. I wrote about ship lapping the fireplace a few weeks ago here.

Real vintage barn wood beam are not cheap. Not to mention the fact that it would be a very labor intensive project to hog out the inside of the beam in order to hang it on the fireplace as a mantel.  So, love the look, not the price and labor involved.

So, if you are looking to add a mantel to your fireplace, this is how you do it.

Ornamental Moulding & Millwork

Ornamental Moulding & Millwork to the rescue! I used 5 foot the mantel/floating shelf to hang on my newly ship lapped fireplace.

The mantel comes in 3′, 4′, 5′ and 6′ lengths. It also comes with or without a black metal accent strip.

The mantel is made of Ambrosia maple and can be clear coated or stained. I left mine raw because I like the natural look it gives.

The maple mantel is designed to bring a rustic element to any room. It can be used as a floating shelf or as a mantel above a fireplace. Ambrosia Maple wood features oblong and gray hued bores that leave a distinct coloration and texture.

Installation

Installation couldn’t be easier and literally took us 15 minutes from unboxing to completed project. 

STEP 1::

Remove mounting cleat and mantel from packaging.

STEP 2::

Choose your location. Our local building code requires that any material that isn’t fire resistant, needs to be at least 18″ away from the opening of the fireplace. So, the bottom of the mantel starts 18″ above the opening of our fireplace.

STEP 3::

Locate studs and mark a level line. Since I was installing over top of cement board, I didn’t need to locate the studs. The cement board would hold the cleat in place.

STEP 4::

Pre-drill pilot holes in the cleat.

STEP 5::

Attach cleat to wall with provided screws. The cleat is level in the photograph below, it’s my ship lap that is a little wonky.

STEP 6::

Pre-drill holes in the top of the mantel where it will attach to the cleat.

STEP 7::

Slip the hollow mantel over the cleat and set with proved screws.

This 1 minute video explains it all very easily.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the hardest. This project is a 3, and that’s only because you need to have the proper tools to complete it correctly. It can easily be done by one person if you don’t need to remove the TV to attach the mantel.

This mantel is exactly what I was looking for and I am so glad we added this to our fireplace.

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