WORK IN PROGRESS: SALVAGED PIANO WOOD MANTEL

A few months ago Matthew and his best friend Brian dismantled an antique piano. It was very time consuming but after all was said and done, there was a lot of beautiful left-over wood with tons of character and if there is one thing that I'm a sucker for, it's anything with character.

Our poor living room in the front of the home has been completely ignored since we moved in and the only items that I have purchased for it are an area rug and upholstered chair. Matt and I always knew that we had to have not only a functioning fireplace but a fireplace with a mantel.

To our dismay, this updated fireplace has no mantel but we figured that we'd be able to think of something along the way. Well, it must have been fate that we ended up with all these rustic wood pieces in the garage because Matt has started to build a beautiful mantel for above the fireplace.

We want it to look imperfect, worn, aged and salvaged. After Matt measured all the dimensions, we picked out our favorite pieces and he got to work. It's difficult working with aged wood because if something goes wrong we don't have a replacement piece. I absolutely love that there is an old handle still attached to one of the piano pieces and we hope to incorporate it into the mantel for, yes, character.

Since our home is only five years old, there is nothing "old" about it, so we have to make due with what we have. But one thing was for sure, we absolutely could not get by without a mantel, much less a recycled piano wood mantel so hopefully you can visualize the final result. I have always wanted to decorate a mantel and have already been brainstorming some mantel decor ideas. Since we won't be hanging a TV above the fireplace, I will have to be inventive and find some eye-catching art and frames. Oh possibilities, why must there be so many of you?