Barn Wood Planks on Mantel

I have added some old barn wood planks to my mantel and I am completely in love with it.

This may just be one of my favorite projects ever!

As you probably remember, here is what my mantel looked like before. 

 I had painted in a green color.

But I always knew that I wanted to add wood planks to it some day.

And then one day as my mother-in-law and I were driving down the road after dropping off my son at pre-school, we noticed a couple of old barns that were about to be torn down.

One of the barns had a sign on it saying, “wood, windows and doors for sale” and a phone number to call.

Actually, we drove by these barns every time after dropping my son off at pre-school and I always commented on how I would like to stop and take a look around.  Then finally one day we actually did stop and turns out we stopped just in time since the barns were going to be torn down a few days later.

So my mother-in-law and I parked the car a few blocks away (since there was massive construction going on). We crossed a dirt street that had just been flattened by a steamroller.  We then made ourselves at home looking around the barns. We both found things we liked and so we called the phone number that was listen on the sign.

A little while later a woman showed up a in an old dirt pick-up truck. She helped us load up our new treasures in the back of her truck and then she gave us a  crazy-bumpy lift, over the construction zone, back to our car, drinks a flying off the dashboard and everything!

It was such an adventurous day! My mother-in-law and I had so much fun!

My mother-in-law picked up this adorable blue window frame..

And I picked up some barn wood planks that we literally ripped off of the old barn. So when I say barn wood, I’m not a kidding!

I came home, washed my planks really good with the hose which took off most of the old lead base paint. I then measured and had Jake saw them to size. Next, I painted them in a pretty white and attached the planks to my mantel using small nails.

It’s not perfect, but I think that’s what adds to the charm of it.

I hung my driftwood mirror back up and then decorated the mantel using pots of grass, bottles, boat floats and a starfish.  All so very beachy.

And then while photographing my mantel…. my camera broke!!

I’m so very sad, but I have been wanting a new DSLR camera for a while now, so I guess it will all be okay 🙂

But in the mean time, I had to switch over to my phone camera which is why these pictures are not the greatest.

 I also picked up an old window screen at the barn, more on that to come.

Thanks for stopping by,

Emily