Vintage Mantle

Our house was built in 2004.  Our kitchen cupboards are knotty alder as is our mantle.  I have developed a love affair with chippy, shabby white and I wanted my fireplace, the focus of my family room, to reflect my new love.  Here is what it looked like before:

It was very pretty, very earthy.

I painted the stone with Behr Ultra

Ultra White, and boy did it take

a long time!

Then I used Caromal Colours textured

basecoat in Peppercorn.  Because this is

simply the color I want showing through

when I sand, it was not crucial to

cover the entire mantle.

And, believe it or not, I don't have the final pic

on my camera and I need to wait until tomorrow

for better lighting to take a pic.

I know for some, painting beautiful wood like this is

a cardinal sin, but I wanted this fireplace

to reflect my style at this moment (which, of course,

will change again, and again, and again).