Home is where the hearth is

I saw this picture and I fell in love with the look of the fireplace and mantel.

The inspiration picture

White marble, probably carrera,  that looked substantial, masculine but not too heavy. And an Old World look that would counter some modern furniture and accessories. I looked further for some other pictures and ran across this one, the living room of Jenna Lyons, the taste maker and creative director of J. Crew. Same idea, different mantel configuration, medallion bracket is centered.

Jenna Lyons' living room

I was on a roll, two more that I liked (Pinterest was coming in handy)...

You get the idea. So I started trawling Craigslist again, my favorite haunt for searches like this. I quickly found out that mantels like this are quite pricey, they could easily go for upwards of $2000 to $4000 or more. The first one I found was in Southampton. It looked perfect. Not as detailed as some of the above examples, more geometric with clean lines. My sister was visiting from Atlanta and we went to meet the seller. He was storing it in the garage of a daycare center. It was beautiful. But it was WAY too big. Sadly I left thinking it was too good to be true. I spotted another a few weeks later. Again, looked great and the dimensions were right but the seller wanted $6500! No dice. Months go by, I keep checking and nothing is turning up. Lots of wooden Victorian selections, too ornate, too many spindles and tchotchke shelves on them. Also too many faux marble fronts for gas fireplaces. Not the thing I was looking for. 

Then came my lucky day. I spotted a posting that had just been put up that day. Someone was selling TWO identical mantels with the exact look I wanted. Here's the picture from the ad:

The Craigslist mantel for sale

They were the EXACT size I needed too. And best of all? The price was beyond belief. $950.00 each! I  had Steve double check the dimensions of the room.  He added it to the Design Document to show me how it would look:

Schematic of how mantel would look

I traded several emails with the seller. He suggested I come take a look at them in person to make sure they were what I wanted. He was in Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn. I had never been to that neighborhood. I decided to make an adventure out of it, I figured I had to jump on this or someone would buy them out from under me. Two days later I took the afternoon off from work and subwayed out to Brooklyn. The address was only 5 blocks from the stop I needed. What a nice neighborhood. Lots of cute shops and restaurants, very charming. Note to self: get out of Manhattan more. Anyway, the guy's name was Jay. He was renovating an entire townhouse. He met me at the front door, along with seven or eight construction workers. It was a beehive of activity...carpenters, masons, painters. You could see that it was going to be a really nice home. He introduced his wife, both of them super friendly. They explained that the mantels were purchased from yet another Brooklyn townhouse but they were too small for the gas fireplace fixtures they'd already ordered. Their architect had screwed the pooch on that one, now they needed to get rid of them. Jay explained that one of the top mantels was broken in two, so was the center medallion. I of course said I was only interested in the complete non-broken one. The hondler in me had to ask if $950 was his best price. He said he could do $900. I jumped on it not wanting to push my luck. He said, "tell you what, I'll give them both to you, I just need to get rid of them, you might need the extra pieces in case something breaks." I accepted. Duh, how could you not? Two for the price of one! We shook on it and I said I'd work on getting a man with a van to pick them up within the week. The following week my project manager at work, Catherine, helped me locate a courier service who did small deliveries and pickups. There was a lot of coordination with my building and the super; these buildings are super picky about insurance with moving companies. God forbid they damage something in the building when they're moving stuff, they have to be covered for liability.

In the end it all worked out. The pickup in Brooklyn and delivery to Sutton Place came off without a hitch. I think the mantel is going to be stunning. 

Here's the BEFORE shot of the ratty mantel in the apartment as it exists when I bought it:

BEFORE

And here's a ROUGH AFTER take on what the mantel will look like...

ROUGH AFTER 

Dis-assembled mantel pieces in apartment

I didn't get to see the mantels in person for a couple of weeks as I was out of town shooting. They were delivered all in pieces, each one was eight pieces in total (mantel, hearth, firebox, medallion, and four sides panels). I layed out the best complete pieces in front of the existing fireplace in the room. Once it's polished and re-assembled it's gonna look sharp. Steve suggested we tile inside the firebox in a herringbone pattern, here's a piece of scrap, we'd do it in polished tile.

Inspiration for tile in firebox

Net net, the whole adventure was worth it. I'm very happy, it was a great find at a fantastic price...how can you beat that?