Thirteen dollar renter's mantle

We moved into our new apartment two weeks ago today. It's got some really nice features like crown molding and a wood-burning fireplace in the living room.

The only negative in the living room was that our fireplace didn't have a mantle...it was just a little bare. Well, kind of a lot bare. Here's the before picture:

Pardon the mess...this is the day of or day after moving in.

I knew as soon as we walked into our apartment for the first time that I wanted to put a shelf above the fireplace, as a mantle.

I was so lucky to have my mom and my sister here to help me the first few days I after I moved in. They did all kinds of unpacking, and helping me hang pictures and whatnot. Thanks for the help!

We also did a little shopping at Hobby Lobby, and found the perfect brackets to hang a shelf with! Before choosing these we considered two other options, including scroll-y wrought iron, and fancy looking resin fleur de lis type thingies. I liked all of them, but thought the chunky wooden ones were more my style. They were in the window treatment section, and were 30% off, making them $4 apiece!

{Sorry, I took a close up of the bracket, but blogger won't let me upload it for some reason. I'll try again later}

We bought a 1x8 for $5 at Home Depot, and my mom routed the edge to make it look a little nicer than just a plain board. We painted all 3 pieces with black paint I already had, and hung the brackets and shelf flush with the tile surround.

So the 2 brackets cost $8 together, plus the $5 board, equals a shnazzy $13 mantle!

Here's the after:

I think it turned out loverly, don't you? All I need now are some candles for those (one dollar each!) thrift store candle sticks!

Check out everyone else's awesome DIY projects at DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land!