Modern Floating Mantel Shelf
I love a good mantel. Mantels come in so many shapes and sizes to fit any style or space. We have built two (so far!), a faux built-in mantel (that hid all of our electronics cords!) and a rustic floating mantel on our stone wall — and featured many, many more. Our guest today has a great modern floating mantel shelf to share with you. The best part about floating mantels is that they are just, well, shelves! So you can put them on any wall and still have a great mantel-type space to decorate.
Here are a few other floating mantels/shelves I’ve loved:
Rustic Floating Shelves with Drawers | Not Just a Housewife
Floating Mantel Ledge Shelf | Shanty 2 Chic
Modern Industrial Floating Shelves | Vintage Revivals
Mantel Shelf with Corbels | I Am Momma, Hear Me Roar
Floating Wall Shelf with Storage | Lowe’s Creative Ideas
And now, a great modern DIY floating mantel shelf from our guest Kendra!
DIY Floating Mantel Shelf
by Kendra of Pots, Pans and Paintbrushes
My name is Kendra Germenis, and I am the host of Pots, Pans and Paintbrushes – my life inspired by food and art. While my life is filled with a little bit of everything and all things random, my creative focus lies in art, cooking and remodeling. My biggest project these days is remodeling my first home. My husband and I are transforming our drabby brown 70’s house into an updated colorful and eclectic home. Some projects that have added to the madness include our complete living room before and after, a few DIY floating shelves and a shabby chic dresser makeover.
Between 1,000 DIY and remodeling projects, excessive cooking, maintaining my blog and Etsy shop (kitsyco.com) and keeping a personal life, my world has been, and continues to be, quite the adventure… and I love every minute of it. Today specifically, I am loving this awesome feature on one of my favorite blogs, Remodelaholic. Thanks for hosting me!
Our options included:
- Sand, strip and re-paint the current the mantel
- Buy a mantel, possibly a standard white one
- DIY our own mantel
Considering 95% of our home remodel was a DIY effort between our family and us and considering our remodel budget was wearing thin, we put on our creative hats, sketched an idea and made our own original DIY mantel. And guess what? You can do it too.
Project Supplies
- Three 8 feet 1” x 12” oak boards
- One small can of Varathane dark walnut wood stain
- Wood glue
Project Tools
- Circular saw, table saw or miter saw (to cut the wood)
- Sand paper or palm sander
- Sponge brushe or old rag (for staining)
- Clamps (for fastening)
Step 5. Once stacked, apply wood glue between each layer of wood. Be careful of using too much glue or applying glue too closely to the edges, or the glue may seep through the cracks or drip down the side.
Step 6. Use clamps to secure the freshly glued mantel. You may even consider placing rags or a supporting board beneath each clamp hold so that your mantel is not dented or scratched. It’s also important in this step to ensure your boards are evenly aligned while clamped because once the glue dries, there’s no turning back.
Step 7. Referencing the wood glue directions, leave the clamps in place until the glue firmly dries and the mantel is set, typically 24-48 hours.
Lorene has been behind the scenes here at Remodelaholic for more than a decade! She believes that planning projects and actually completing them are two different hobbies, but that doesn't stop her from planning at least a dozen projects at any given time. She spends her free time creating memories with her husband and 5 kids, traveling as far as she can afford, and partaking of books in any form available.
Thank you so much for the feature! Love the post and am more than happy to answer any questions people may have!
Kendra
Kendra you are welcome!
How neat. I love the little side cabinets, too.
That mantel is so cool! I love it! So unique!
Looks great! Love the painted brick as well…what steps did you take in painting the brick and what paint did you use? Thanks!
Thank you! For the brick, we first scrubbed/cleaned, primed, and then painted. To clean, we literally used a bucket of soap and water and wire scrub brush. You can use any primer (I think we used Killz), and then we used a Behr interior paint + primer, custom color match for the top coat. I’ll need to double check the finish, but I believe it’s flat… We primed with brushes and rollers, and it was extremely time-consuming since brick is so porous. We used a spray gun for the top coat and it was way more efficient.
Thank you so much!
I love your mantle piece and would love to build one myself.
I have not had anything installed over my fireplace previously and was wondering if you had an idea of how to attach the mantle to the brick wall of my fireplace.
Christiane, it all depends on that kind of brick it is and how heavy the mantle will be. The best thing to do is take a picture of the brick and a sketch of the mantel that you want to a hardware store, to have them help you get the right fasteners. Good luck with your project.
Can u tell me the color and the finish of the paint you used on the brick? This looks awesome and we need to cover our brick that we painted white with semigloss paint.
Hi Erin, sorry for the delayed response. We used a custom color match paint for our brick. Believe it or not, we actually matched it to the color of ceiling. I’d be more than happy to email you a picture of the paint can if you provide your email address or send me an email to kitsyco@gmail.com. Thanks!
That’s a great blog. It was great knowing that you have managed to design such a beautiful mantel shelf. Kudos to you for such a creative concept. More than reading, I enjoyed the pictures.