Mantelpiece Cover-up (2009)

Left: The old mantelpiece                                               Right: The new cover-up mantelpiece.

At home we have an old fire place. In the old days it was an operating one, but nowadays the chimney is blocked by cement and an electric one is placed instead.

My parents didn't like the look of the old mantelpiece with the black, turquoise, yellow tiles anymore and asked me if I could make a wooden mantelpiece which could cover up the original one.

So I did.

I made it out of MDF and the ornaments were made with some old pinewood I had laying around.
The DIY shop made the 3 rabbets for me with their table saw. By now I learned how I could make those line using my own table saw or a router grinder.
I did use the router grinder to grind some decorative profiles along the edges.
And because my mother thought the piece was missing something, we came up with the word "Home" to be placed in the middle.
Those letters were made with help of my electric fretsaw. It's made from 3mm triplex. I stained them and used a varnish to make them a bit nicer.

Final mantelpiece without the letters.

Close up of the wooden letters.

Close-up of the pinewood ornament
and the rabbets lines underneath it.

Pinewood Ornament:
Step 1: Saw basic shape
Step 2: Sand down the edges
Step 3 Glue 3 of them together
Step 4: Saw the bottom shape
Step 5: Grind 3 lines using a Dremel