Fireplace Mantels

Everyone dreams of living in a mansion, but only a few actually live that dream. Why not bring a piece of the mansion style living into your home? A custom fireplace mantel is one way to enjoy a bit of the mansion life.

A beautiful classic stone fireplace mantel is a great choice. To put it simply, these mantels are majestic. They are created using a beautiful composite stone mantel material. Each mantel has variations in color and texture that capture the essence of natural stone. For an even more dignified look you can add an over the mantel piece that goes as far as 5 feet above the actual mantel. These mantels range from $1,000 to $6,000. Although that is a high price to pay for a fireplace mantel, it will be the focal point of your room and what a focal point that will be!

The less expensive, yet just as exquisite, choice would be the marble fireplace mantels. It seems this option has more color choices. Marble has more of a pattern or design than stone or wood mantles. These types of mantels start around $400 and would work with either the traditional fire or electric fireplaces. Even more less expensive are the travertine and slate fireplace mantel. These mantels start at around $300, yet they still have the majestic feel of mansion style living. However, the choices of color and design of the travertine and slate are much more limited.

If these are still all out of your price range, perhaps the veneer stone is a better option for you. These stones are “fake”. They are not the solid stones traditionally used. They have the face of the real stones yet are not an actual full stone. They have the same look but are not as expensive or as hard to install. This may even be a do it yourself project for many homeowners, saving you even more money.

Whichever type of fireplace mantel material you choose, be sure to make that your first decision when renovating your room. This will set the tone for designing the rest of the room. The overall style of the room will come from the fireplace. The fireplace will also determine the color scheme of the room. From the wall color, to the furniture, to the curtains, each color choice made will have to compliment the fireplace and fireplace mantel.

The most important decision to make when redoing a room is the focal point. The focal point of any room with a fireplace, is the fireplace. The last choice to make on deciding your fireplace mantel will be the first step in deciding the overall color scheme of the room. Every other choice made for your room will be based on the fireplace. When choosing the fireplace mantel for your home, first consider a few things. Decide on the style of your room before making any other decisions, choose what the mantel would be made of and finally the color or finish of the mantel.

First up is the style of the room. This is the most important deicison. All other choices from here on out will be based upon this first decision. If you are decorating a sitting room you will obviously want a more tradition looking mantel, versus decorating a family room where you may want a bit more casual look. Where you choose either of these two, somewhere in between or something completely different-you will have many options in each category.

Next is deciding on the make of the mantel. Probably the most popular choice for mantels is the wooden shelf. Wooden mantels do not limit you at all with style.There is the plain old wooden shelf mantel. There is the traditional/causual three sided mantel and there is the surrond-free standing mantel. Another option would be stone or granite. This is probably the most expensive option but obviously has the most appeal. Again you could go with the shelf look or the surronding. Finally, the becoming more popular choice, cast stone. This gives you the real stone look by using veneer stones. This gives you the great look of high class stone but at a cheaper price.

And finally, deciding the color of the mantel. If chosen a wood mantel the choices will be paint or stain. If paint is the route chosen, white is the popular choice but a second popular would be black. One the other hand, stain has a wide variety from dark walnut to cherry oak or golden oak. On top of that there will be varnish, so you can choose to have a semi-dull look or add more varnish for a shiny look. If choosing stone or granite, a good choice would be something with neutral colors since you don’t want the fireplace to take over the room, rather be a small piece of art.