Need a little design help

Leo Voisine

Member
Messages
5,703
Location
East Freeetown, Massachusetts
OK first of all please forgive me for being long winded - that's just the way I am - sorry
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Last year - I ripped out a brick woodstove hearth and completely rebuild the entire inside thing and installed a new woodstove.

I did not add a mantle cause I wanted to monitor how much heat was being cast off the back of the woodstove. Trust me - I am 5 times safer than code. So in fact there is very little heat against the wall.

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NOW - I am planning on adding a mantle.

OK this is the NICE one. I am going to make a mantle - to go over the new woodstove. It is going to be Oak - not solid - but it will look solid.

The mantle will be about 68 inches long by 12 inshes high by about 10 inches deep.

In the face of the mantle will be the picture previews below. The engraving will be 24 inches wide x 12 inches tall - and cut 1-3/4 inches deep into the face of the mantle.

On either side will be something - I don't yet know what that something will be. Most likely some bible verses.

Right now I have I Cor 10:14-17

OK - suggestions on bible versus? Remember - this is a mantle above the wood stove.

I included a pic of the woodstove just to make ya see what I am talkin about. Ohh and the ugly trim above the stove on the wall is coming down.

I am also thinking of adding some crown aroung the top of the mantle - like you sometimes see around the top of a cabinet.


IDEAS? COMENTS? SUGGESTIONS?

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PLEASE - don't worry about hurting my feelings - I need HONEST thoughts and comments end opinions
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On either side will be something - I don't yet know what that something will be. Most likely some bible verses.

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PLEASE - don't worry about hurting my feelings - I need HONEST thoughts and comments end opinions
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Leo,

I would think that any *words* you put up would get old pretty quick. I have a colleague who has some pithy sayings up on her walls in her office. Sure they were fun the first time, and maybe the second, but after months and now years they just seem silly. I don't think even the greatest of poets could bear such constant scrutiny. Take Dante, for instance:

"My son!" He said, "Whoever in this train
Pauses a moment, must stand a hundred years
Forbidden to brush off the burning rain!"

Yes, OK, words to live by, a remaking of Horace's Carpe Diem theme, but to look at them day after day after day? And since we're on Horace, what if it read

"Nunc Est Bibendum!" Yes, well, even in a bar, that might get old... ;)

And I love Horace! Same goes for other themes: Lao-Tzu, Buddha, Baron Samedi even... no matter how cool it seems now, they'd all get pretty old... ;)

For me, I tend to go with the purely pictorial. I can put up with a good image forever... ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
Leo -- just some thoughts
  • Don't abandon the Bible verses, they been around for 2000 years and will last forever
  • But, Maybe don't put them in the mantle. Make the mantle plain.
  • Then, put your bible verses and graphics on a separate piece and work them in with the stove and mantle.

If you get tired of the arrangement or want to relocate your plaques you can.

Tony
 
Leo -- just some thoughts
  • Don't abandon the Bible verses, they been around for 2000 years and will last forever
  • But, Maybe don't put them in the mantle. Make the mantle plain.
  • Then, put your bible verses and graphics on a separate piece and work them in with the stove and mantle.

If you get tired of the arrangement or want to relocate your plaques you can.

Tony


That's a nice idea - what do you think about the 3D engravig of the Last Supper - into the mantle.
 
Here in Japan, in older homes, they have an alcove in the living room, and they hang scrolls with art work on them in the alcove, they change these depending on the season, and some families will have quite a collection of these, which some of them do not get shown often, only with the birth of a child, a wedding or some such occasion.

Maybe you could do something similar with various quotes, from various sources, frame each one, and then you could change them around as you please.

Just a thought :wave:
 
Not gunna sell - but that is a good point - the religeous theme might not be the fancy of everyone. Someday - I suppose - the house will be sold.

The mantle will be above the stovepipe.

The way I did the install - every pipe is double wall and very little heat ever reaches the wall.
 
it's not so much that leo, but from the pic, it looks like the stovepipe would be blocking the view, or you would be craning your neck up to take a look at what's up there. were it me, i would put one or two on each side of the wall behind the stove.
 
That's a nice idea - what do you think about the 3D engravig of the Last Supper - into the mantle.

That's your call my friend! Like you I would love to, but, as mentioned above, someone else may live in the house some day. Might be best to stick with a theme representative of the area (mountains, trees, a local landmark).

Tony
 
I like the idea of building a plain mantle or some carving in it that would be considered traditional. I could see a carving of a flintlock and powder horn. Anything that would cut across American culture. You could mount the plaques of any scriptures or Christian theme carvings directly above or below. ..I had a writing professor who had Dante's inscription of what was over the gates of hell over the doorway to his classroom. He was a first class jerk.
Another thing to keep in mind is that when you pass through the vale, your kids (if you have them) might want to keep the carvings and pass them down through the family. When I was growing up I had several artistic siblings. They painted murals on walls in the house and also signs on doors. I'm sure the new homeowners painted over some of them. I did hear that one new homeowner was trying to find out who painted a mural of an Italian town on a bathroom wall over the bathtub. They wanted it repaired when the paint eventually began to peel.
 
it's not so much that leo, but from the pic, it looks like the stovepipe would be blocking the view, or you would be craning your neck up to take a look at what's up there. were it me, i would put one or two on each side of the wall behind the stove.

Dan,

It's all about having compustables to close to the source of heat.

All the wayy behind the stove has no combustable materials

Yes you will need to look up to see what is there.

Me - having lived through a couple of house fires - and I go out with the wood stove running - and I go to bed with the woodstove burning - I am fanatical about being on the side of safety.

No combustable near any part of the stove.
 
Well Shawn (my son) and Laura (his awesome wife) came for a visit today. We talked a lot about this project.

My entire plan is way too complex - too busy - I need to make it far more simple.

I also need to remove all the trim wood above the stove and the trim in the passageway going from the house to the breezeway.

I will be engraving the mantle face but not with the last supper or with any verses.

It will just be something with simple lines.

WOW - what a change but we all agree it will be better.

Whew - how am I going to find time to build a kayak.
 
Leo, I haven't seen anyone mention it yet, but you need to check what your local building code specifies, regardless if you have checked and the wall behind the stove gets warm. I know that in at least some areas, there are very strict codes about where and how far from the stove a mantle can be located.

Jim
 
Leo, I haven't seen anyone mention it yet, but you need to check what your local building code specifies, regardless if you have checked and the wall behind the stove gets warm. I know that in at least some areas, there are very strict codes about where and how far from the stove a mantle can be located.

Jim

Jim YES - you are VERY correct in that. And yes what I am doing is well within code. It is my preference to exceed code that to simply meet it.

The building code in my area basically state that the manufacturer of the stove give the specs. I am on the safer side of the specs.

I am mid progress on this thing.

progress-1.jpg

progress-2.jpg

Right now - I hate this part of any inside project - dust is everywhere,

But in order for the mantle too look good - all this ugky work needs to get done, Making the mantle will actually be fun,
 
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