More than a year after the fireplace had been installed, I finally got around to starting on the mantle. It’s cherry to match the coffee table, and the same simple design, but it will have a touch of chunky dental work at the top.

First it had to be framed up around it to meet fire code.

I loose–cut all the pieces of plywood in the garage, then trimmed them to final dimensions in the shop. Having a full size shop sure would be nice sometimes. I glued up the 2 side sections and test fit them into place.

The 2 sides are mostly complete—just have to make the columns and attach the bases. The columns will be square with a slight taper, again, to match the coffee table. Also got the center section assembled.

Here’s the top section being glued up. I bought the special connectors Rockler sells for connecting 2 of their very nice bar clamps together. That gave me the 8' clamps I needed for this.

Gluing on the dentil work and other trim pieces.

Since I had so much 1/4" cherry plywood left over, I decided to make the legs from that instead of wasting 3/4" solid stock. There are caps inside the top and bottom, but the rest is just edge–glued. In the background, the router table is still moved out into the room from when I made the dentil work. The front piece was too long to do it back against the wall.

I finally got to see the legs in place. Up to this point, I’d only had a rough idea in my head and on a 3D model of how they’d look. This confirmed that I got the dimensions perfect.

And here’s the final product. Except for going to the fireplace store to get the metal trim that will cover the gap between the fireplace and mantle. Guess I need to put the trim back on each side too, eh?