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The hunt for the perfect antique mantel for your home can be surprisingly fun, especially if you're at all adventurous. While it's possible (and a bit expensive) to shop around online for the perfect restored period antique fireplace mantle, you'll find many gems in the rough sitting in dusty, crowded salvage shops and yards. And while restoring and fitting fireplaces is a job often best left to professionals, restoring antique fireplace mantels can be done by an avid do-it-yourself handyman with a good deal of skill. Even if you do opt for a professional restoration job (and chances are good that you should), you can save a great deal of money - and get a great deal of satisfaction - from discovering a hidden beauty in the back of a salvage yard, unnoticed. Just think of the stories you can tell!
If you're considering going on a hunt for antique fireplace mantels for your home, take the following tips and advice to help you in your search.
1. (For wooden antique mantels) Check local safety ordinances to find out the required distance from firebox to wooden mantel. This may rule out taller antique fireplace mantels with overmantels and elaborate shelves if your ceiling is low.
2. Consider the period of your home. If you're determined to be historically accurate in a restoration, it will limit your choices of available mantels. On the other hand, mixing architectural details from differing periods can create visually stunning rooms - if it's done with a careful eye for detail and design.
3. Study the wood working and detail in your home for repeated motifs. In fact, do yourself one better - take photographs of details that are especially striking and take them with you on your hunt. Many of the carving details found in crown mouldings and door lintels were repeated in antique fireplace mantels. It's not unheard of to find a wooden or stone mantelpiece with carvings that exactly match your existing wood working. After all, there were only so many architectural designers working during any one period.
4. Take into account the overall dimensions of your room. You want the fireplace mantel to be a focal point, not an overpowering attention grabber.
5. Measure the entire width of your existing fireplace, but don't be strictly bound by it. Especially if you are choosing to hang a free standing mantel on the wall, you can get by with a mantelpiece that's considerably wider than your hearth. In fact, you can incorporate it into a striking design statement.
6. Dress in scruffy clothing. Salvage yards can be dusty places. You might also want to take along a torch to make it easier to study details up close.
could be a sign of prosperity for you now.
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