Impromptu Mantel Makeover

As I was looking through all the Spring linky parties for inspiration, I realized I couldn't really achieve the look I was going for with a wood stained mantel.  Here's my attempt at our mantel last year.
See what I mean?  It's just not doing it for me.

Everything I gravitate towards has a white mantel and mine was holding me back.  So guess what I did?  Yes!
I painted it white.  I was tired of thinking about it and just did it!  I used an interior alkyd semi-gloss enamel; it will take a good 24 hours to dry, but when it does, I can't wait to play!  I don't have the color of the paint because it is a custom manual match, but for those of you interested, here is the code:

Here's the before:

Here's a close up of the different types of trim they used and let me tell ya, this was REAL fun to paint!  

I used a sponge brush to get into all the crevices and a sponge roller for the top.  Both worked really well to minimize brush strokes.  After about two hours of painting, here she is in all her white glory.

YAY!  I'm so excited!  I'll be back tomorrow to show you my new Spring mantel.

Are there projects in your home that you keep putting off and one day you finally decide, "today is the day, I'm tired of talking about it."  Today was that day for me and I couldn't be happier with the results. 

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