>Living Room – Fireplace Mantel and Wood Radiator Covers

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Living in an older home has brought us much joy.

Back 100 years ago things were done by eye. We are always amazed at how nothing is level when we use a ruler. We have learned to hang pictures by eye. Rulers are only guides in our home.

When we decided to update our living room our first thought was to change out the mantel and radiator covers.

Before: Not much of a mantel and the stones around the fireplace seemed kind of strange looking.

My husband cut a piece of plywood and nailed it to the paneling. We loved how much better the fireplace already looked.

The wood boards in the fireplace are from my son.

We updated to a gas fireplace. It’s so lovely at night and we are now spending more time in our living room.

Now back to the mantel. It had to go. It just seemed to be so small in size. We wanted the room to look more formal.

Here’s a side view of the fireplace stones. In between the stones were crumbled plaster that had been painted.

I know it looks really bad. Nothing at all fancy about the fireplace now. Do you see why we needed to update it?

We are blessed to have gorgeous peg and grove hardwood plank floors. 

We went with real mahogany wood for the mantel. It took some time getting the stain as dark as we wanted. Here the mantel finally going in. 

I love the difference the new mantel makes. I think it’s so much prettier than before.



The new mantel has really warmed up the room.





Even the radiators look so much better with their new wood covers.

What updates have you done in your living room?