Countdown to Christmas - DIY Christmas Fireplace Mantle

 When we had to move from our house with a fireplace to an apartment in 2015, we had to adjust to a change to our traditions. One of those traditions was hanging our stocking on the mantle for Christmas Eve.  We wanted to continue our traditions as much as possible so I decided to DIY a mantle. 

Since we had just moved a few months before, we still have some moving boxes on hand. I used for small size moving boxes (16 x 12 x 12) from Lowes to make the sides of the fireplace.  I taped them shut so that the sides were even. 

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I wanted to make my fireplace red, and since it was December in Michigan and I did not have enough room to paint indoors, I had to improvise again. I bought two rolls of plain red paper from the Dollar Tree.   I wrapped them individually with the paper and stacked them back together. 

There are a couple of ways to make the bricks.  One way is to use a square sponge in white paint. I was making our mantle kind of last minute, and knew waiting for paint would take longer than I had. I decided to use a roll of masking tape to make the lines.  I tried to line the tape up as straight as possible, but as you can see in the picture didn't measure between each line.  Uneven bricks give your fireplace more character, yea, let's go with that.  LOL! 

I took smaller lines of tape, and lined up bricks on all visible sides.  

Next I needed to figure out what to use as a mantel. I decided on a Dollar Tree foam board, though you could use a piece of wood if desired.  The foam board  was lightweight enough to sit on the cardboard boxes. I did have to trim them a little bit for the best fit.  One piece is a bit thin, so you can double up and use two of them.  

I used small command hooks to hang the stockings.  I put them on the top of the foam boards with the hooks close to the edge. For a more cozy feel, I covered the mantle with my favorite woodland Christmas blanket.  Buddy and Joy thought it was a nice spot to have a little Christmas snuggle. 

While it was not the big wooden fireplace that I was used to, it was an inexpensive alternative that only took a few dollars and a few hours to make. 

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