Antique Mantle Makeover

Long time no see!  2014 has been a busy year, which is why I haven't posted in so long!  Let's see...the fiance graduated law school, we moved across the country, I interviewed for 20+ jobs (no exaggeration!), started a new job, and I'm ridiculously busy with wedding planning...so you can imagine why I haven't posted in awhile. :)

But!  I have a ton of cool DIY wedding projects that I will hopefully be sharing here in a month or so after the wedding, which is fast approaching.  And I wanted to stop in today and share a before and after picture of this cool mantle I picked up antiquing.

Since we moved, we no longer have a fireplace in our apartment, which made me sad since I love decorating it for each season.  So when I saw this (beat up) mantle at an antique store, I decided to buy it and paint it with white chalk paint!

If you've never used chalk paint before, I highly recommend it.  Normally I hate painting, but the chalk paint made it so easy and quick!  I wanted a distressed look to match these antique molding pieces we hang as art in our house, and the chalk paint was the best paint I could have chosen.

There's no sanding or prepping involved.  You slap a coat or two of the chalk paint right onto any surface, wait 20-30 minutes for it to dry (no kidding!), sand the edges a little to rough it up (only if you want), and then rub on this special wax with a white t-shirt, which helps give it that distressed look and also seals the paint so it doesn't rub off.
 

We finished the entire project in about two hours.

We hung the mantle on the wall with a picture hanging kit for really heavy photos (75 pounds and up).  We didn't nail into the studs so I'm hoping it doesn't fall over.  I'll let you know if it does I guess!

Nice and simple, and turned out lovely!  My kind of project. :)