How to Make a Fireplace Mantel with Crown Molding

There are many ways than you can do to make a fireplace mantel as DIY projects. Building it with stylish shelf, wood materials and crown molding can be great options to add value decoration on your home, particularly if you find it lost in wall. Yes, good planning on decor can brighten up entire room and give fresh new look.

There are many online guides that can help you to build fireplace mantel by your own self. After doing online research, this is compilation of steps by steps for complete this task by using medium-density fiberboard and two newel posts for getting British colonial look because of crown molding.

Prepare your materials and tools

You must prepare following things. They are screw gun and screws, crown molding, caulk gun and caulk paint, level, tape measure, hammer, nail set, compressor, power drill, sandpaper, paintbrushes, rollers, paint sprayer, table saw and a miter saw, finish nails and shims.

Building side columns

The first thing to do is to measure distance from brick to the mantel. For instance, the measurement can be 52” tall x 7” wide and 7” depth. You can put 60 inches mantles off the floor as allowance. For accurate measurement width, creating center points is recommended. Constructing double rectangular boxes can be done by using medium-density fiberboard so the side columns can be built with new surroundings.

Laying newel post onto boxes

Keep in your mind to mark the placement by using to pencil to ensure the position at open end. After removing the post and flipping it over, you can drill the holes on box and spread the glue so you can put the screws from underside. To make clean surface, it is advised to sand all edges and holes. Getting spray paint is recommended to get desired color that matches to wall.

Making the cleats

The main purpose of cleats is to withstand the column to wall. So it is advised to make sure get accurate measurement of cleats where as it should be ½ inch less than dimensions of column box (height and width). Next step to do is to secure the cleat to wall or all side of fireplace by using wall screws. Finishing nails and leveling can be done after this step.

Installing crown molding

After crating mantel piece from medium-density fiberboard, larger than your old mantel, you can install crown molding by beefing the dimensions at right angle and fastening the cleats to the mantels. Secure the new mantel by leveling cleats and making necessary finishing.

Trim and the mantel and install new fireplace doors

You can add decorative design on trim to add new style. Make sure to make nail holes smooth and dry so you can easily install new door and attach brackets, insulation and tighten the screws.

The guides and picture are taken from hgtv.com.

Here are some examples of fireplace mantel design that can inspire you to make DIY projects.