When we first saw this house with our realtor back in 2012, one of the first things I knew I had to change was the giant hole over the fireplace. Not only is it outdated and an eyesore in my opinion, but I really wanted the chance to decorate above the mantel without a hole getting in my way.
I had
the thought to get old barn wood that was distressed and gray, put them
together and cover the hole. But, finding old wood that looked the way I wanted it to wasn't
happening very easily. So, I decided to tackle the distressed look on
my own. I made a quick trip to Home Depot and picked up (11) 1x4x4 fence
pickets. They looked like this when I bought them. I used gray paint
and painted a quick coat on the sides. After I let the sides dry, I
painted a coat on the front facing side, and only let
it dry for a few minutes before "distressing".
To achieve the look of a distressed board, I started by adding small
brush strokes of white paint, followed by small brush strokes of black
paint.
Then, I just blended the colors into the board,
adding a bit more of white, black and grey when I felt like it. That's
the great thing about this look, is that there is no "right way" to do
it! I love projects that don't have to be perfect. This is the look you
end up with.
We used MDF and liquid nails to attach the boards to one another,When they were all attached, this is what it looked like.
Matthew
suggested that we make it a door so that don't lose any storage.
Genius! I knew I married him for a reason. So, another trip to Home
Depot it was and we picked up three 6" hinges. After assessing the
piece again, Matthew thought it would be good to add another piece of
MDF (which we had leftover in our garage from another project) for more
stability. He attached the new piece of MDF and the hinges.
The back of this piece is not pretty! We may do something to
it in the future, but for now, this is what it looks like. (Update: We've had this door up for 8 years and the back is still this ugly - oh well).
This project was wonderful, because we only paid about $30 total for the materials, which is a huge difference from the $120-$200 we were looking at for a mirror to cover this hole. And, we kept the storage space, and we plan to add shelves in the future to maximize that space.
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