Floating Oak Mantle Piece

A picture heavy post sorry. This is our own mantle piece in our living room. It's been on my "to-do" list for quite some time! 

The top of our fire place looked like this all winter, so it was time to make it look a little better!

Plywood template made up the exact same size as the oak so holes could accurately be drilled and match up between the wall and the piece of oak

Fixing the template to the wall. Making sure it's level

The stainless steel threaded bar fixed into the wall. The holes behind are a couple of mm bigger to allow for the resin to fix the bar. 

Using a template in this way means that the bar will be in exactly the right place. I used the nut to make sure it was the right distance out from the wall.

The three pieces of threaded bar resined into the wall. The middle one is purely to locate the oak and to stop it from warping.

The underside of the two ends. The oak is then tighten to the wall making it very strong. This hole will eventually be filled with a Walnut plug for contrast (If you can't hide something then make a feature of it!)

A good spanner had to die to fix it though as a normal one wouldn't fit in the hole! 

The finished mantle piece

The mantle piece looks quite modern but, in my opinion, goes well with our fireplace, giving it a good mix of the traditional materials with the sharp lines of the rest the fireplace.