Wood Beam Mantel DIY

Looking to add some warm, rustic vibes to your brick fireplace? A wood beam mantel is a great place to start. This DIY mantel makeover took only about 2 hours to complete and boy…did it transform the entire look of our living room or what?!

In case you missed it, see my detailed living room transformation post to see how we brightened and updated our living room here.

Let’s take a look at how this fireplace looked when we first moved in.

Eek! I hated the tones of this brick and the nasty bronze fireplace screen. I first removed the screen and whitewashed the brick on the fireplace. Read my post on how I whitewashed the brick here. 

***Update****  I recently painted over the whitewash completely with white, brick paint. If you need a great tutorial for painting over a brick fireplace, check out this thorough post by Project Allen Designs by clicking here. If you want to know how my painted fireplace is holding up after three years, click here.

Here is what it looked like after whitewashing the brick.

In my opinion, it still lacked character and warmth. Being a Fixer Upper junkie, I see how they often add a wood beam to a plain, brick fireplace. I decided to replicate their style. Let me share with you how we (ok, so it was really just my husband. I was too busy chasing after my 19 month old) added a wood beam mantel to our plain Jane fireplace.

NOTE: We have built this same wood beam mantel twice now. So if you are confused by the different photos of this space, just know it was the same method- simply different stains.  Given it has been six years since I originally posted this tutorial, you must keep in mind that our living room has gone through several changes.

For your convenience, I have included some affiliate links. That simply means if you click on one of the links and buy something, I receive a small commission, but don’t worry… you won’t pay a dime more.*

Materials Needed to Build Faux Oak Mantel:

• Common Board ( we used 6’x10”)
• trigger clamps
• 16 gauge finishing nails if you have a nail gun or 6D 1.5” finish nails with nail set.
• Circular Saw or Mitre Saw
• Wood Stain (I used this stain)
• Foam Brush and Rag to apply stain

Because we already had a brick mantel, we decided to basically wrap the existing mantel in the common board. Here is how we did it.

How To Build Wood Beam Mantel DIY Steps:

1. Cut the top board the length of the mantel.
   
2. Cut face board length of mantel PLUS an additional 1.5”. This allows seams to be hidden from the front.
3. Cut side pieces to fit mantel width PLUS .75″ height so that only one seam can be seen from side.
4. With your trigger clamps, clamp top board to mantel so it won’t move while nailing your side boards to it. Like so..5. Nail side pieces to top board with 16 finish nail (for those of you lucky ducks with nail guns). If you don’t have a nail gun…no worries. Use  6 D 1.5” finish nail with nail set.6. You are getting there! After side pieces are in place, nail your face board to the side board.7. Stain wood “beam” to finish of your choice. (I used this stain)

Given the huge impact, this project required such little investment. It really just added that extra touch I was looking for and it makes the room feel so much more cozy. Even better, it only cost around $30 and provided a dramatic impact. Just the extra touch of warmth we needed.

For those of you who are more visual learners, I have also included a video tutorial in this post.

**UPDATED 2021**
We recently installed new oak flooring throughout our home! To match the lighter new floors, we decided to rebuild the mantel (using the same materials and technique) but stain it to look like oak..

To see how we stained the new mantel to look like oak, you can click here for that separate tutorial.

Want to see how we were able to mount our TV on the brick when there was no existing electrical receptacle (and hide the wires)? Click here for that separate tutorial.

UPDATED 2021: Below is what my fireplace and living room look like now…

As I mentioned earlier, our living room has gone through quite the metamorphous throughout my half decade of blogging. Nonetheless, all of these photos are the same damn fireplace!

Hope I inspired some of ya’ll. Now get out there and design some good vibes!

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