Here is the really ugly (weird color brown) mantle with white 4" bathroom wall tile that was the face of our fireplace.
Not a pretty look.
Not a pretty look.
BeforeAnd here is the much easier on the eye after.
My husband is a contractor and this tile was leftover from a previous job. It was exactly what I would have picked if I had gone to pick it out myself. He did all of the the demo and tile work.
I used a liquid de-glosser on the mantle. There was already enough dust from the tile demo that I didn't want to add to the mess by sanding. After it was prepped for painting I painted it with 3 coats of black premixed Rustoleum satin paint. I knew this paint would give me a true black and be very durable. I did have to thin it out to make it easier to work with. I distressed all of the edges with a nail file and then rubbed the distressed spots with a walnut stain that was leftover from another project to darken them. The sanded spots were white not bare wood before I applied the stain because apparently this mantle had been white at a previous time. I couldn't sand it enough to get to the wood for the distressed look that I wanted, so I improvised. At first I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but once it was all done it looked great.
This has been one of my favorite projects in this house. Since the tile was free we really only had to buy black paint and spend a few hours here and there to complete this project. I think that the landlords will approve.
