Scavenger Chic

Black Shiplap Wall, Faux Railroad Tie Mantel

• By Joan
• May 27, 2021
• 5 Comments

Fireplace Surround

This week I’m back in Kevin and Mollies house, my son and daughter-in-law.  I’ve been here before helping to update their bathroom and their son, Felix’s room.  Their house is so much fun for the person who is always doing a project.  It was built in 1980 as a modern house, but it looks like it has been stuck in 1980.  Instead of modern 1980, we’re going for a more contemporary modern farmhouse.

Today we’re tackling their fireplace wall.  Slowly but surely, the orange oak that has been scattered all around their house has been disappearing.  This wall is about to get covered with black shiplap, we’re installing a faux railroad tie mantel and surrounding the fireplace with a nice wood surround and marble tile.

The upstairs plant shelf and railing will be another post, hopefully soon.

They prepainted the fireplace wall with a dark gray thinking that if the shiplap boards  had a gap between them then the white would show thru.  This ended up to be an unnecessary step as the shiplap had a lip on it which prevents the background color from showing thru.

With chalk, they decided exactly how wide and tall they wanted the fireplace surround to be.

I wasn’t there for the build on the fireplace surround but you can probably figure out how it was constructed.  A 2×10 with a diagonal cut at the corners and a 1×2 on the outside edge.  Where the surround is over the existing slate it  was attached to the wall with  construction adhesive.  Above the slate, the surround is screwed into the existing studs.

Black Shiplap Wall

One of the main reasons to use the shiplap for the wall was to cover the oak panels that stretched the length of the wall.  Those panels were recessed into the walls about an inch.  The shiplap goes straight across, the recesses will never be seen again.

At the corners he used a miter saw to miter the ends of the boards.

Mitered the ends of this corner as well.

Probably wouldn’t have had to do the miter cuts because the corner trim piece was wide enough to cover all the cut ends.

They filled the nail holes with wood putty and sanded.

Mollie is starting to paint while Kevin is putting the last of the shiplap boards up.

That piece above them will eventually be taken down.  It has the eyeball lights in it right now and from the top it’s a plant shelf.  Very 70’s.

I don’t have pictures of the  tile insert in progress.  When I had left, there was still a debate going as to whether they should keep the slate or add this beautiful marble tile.  The tile won.

Another 1×2  cleans up the outer edge of the tile and adds more visual interest.

The wood on the surround had the nail holes filled and sanded, gaps filled with caulk, wood sanded and primed and finished with 2 coats of white trim paint.

A closer view of the fireplace surround.

Faux Railroad Tie  DIY Mantel

I’ve done a faux railroad tie mantel for my home and you can refer back to that one for more in progress pictures.  The biggest difference in the two is in how the end was constructed.

For the mantel we bought one genuine old piece of wood from the  salvage yard. It was 8″ x 2″ x10 foot , long enough for an 8 foot mantel and the two ends.

Kevin mitered the ends, then glued, screwed and clamped together until dry.

The sides were cut long enough to fit a 2×6 on the top and bottom.  A 1×6 would have worked just as well.

For those 2×6’s I’m using my handy dandy assistant to add a few aged marks with a hammer, nails, screwdriver jabs….

Use long screws to attach the old wood, the front and ends, to the new wood, top and bottom.

When using screws, predrill a hole wide enough to fit a wooden dowel.  Insert screws so that they are countersunk.  Fill the predrilled hole  with the dowel.  Sand off the dowel so that it is level with the rest of the wood and stain.  Refer back to my last mantel for more pics.

Sand the corners and any other splinters you may have and you’re ready for finishing.  The old wood did not need any staining to look old, it got a coat of just the clear wax.

The newer wood needed a bit more treatment to come anywhere near close to matching the old wood.  The lighter wood above left has just a layer of dark walnut stain on it…not even close.

It was time to resort back to the same treatment I had done on my mantel…vintage wax and black paint.

On the  top right above, I’ve added a little of the black chalk paint (very little) to  the vintage wax.  It starts to get more of the faux railroad tie look.  Use a paintbrush to paint on then blend with a rag and rub off any excess with the rag.  We ended up adding just a little red acrylic paint to the mix as well trying to match that reddish tint in the old vintage piece.

Mom and Dad are hanging the structure from which the new mantel will hang. Try to ignore the grinning child in the foreground. 😀  That is one long 2×4 that will fit inside the new mantel and smaller 2×4 pieces screwed into the longer pieces. Center, level and screw into the wall.

While Mollie makes sure the new mantel is flush with the wall, Kevin adds screws from the top into the 2×4 structure.

For my mantel I had done straight cuts for the ends.  It worked for me because mine was at the end of the room and partially hidden behind curtains, no one would ever  notice the ends.

This mantel is in the center of the room..  A beautifully finished end is perfect and exactly what this space needed.

A perfect mantel to hang Christmas stockings.

Bottom half is pretty much complete, upper part of the wall still had a long way to go at this point.

Always like to finish with a good before and after.

If I get all my pictures together, hopefully I’ll have the upper half of this redo for you in the next week or so.

Stay inspired.

 

The following three projects were also from son #2’s house.

Powder Room Makeover

Closing in an Open Ceiling

 

Wet Bar, Kitchen Cabinet Makeover