For years when we first got married, we would hit up the local auctions and see what treasures we could find. One thing we needed were practical things for the house and it was way cheaper than going out and buying new. Any young couple can definitely relate! So over the years my husband has loved going. He actually worked at one auction place for a couple of years as a 2nd part time job. After starting building on our house, we ventured with some friend’s to an auction about a couple of hours away from where we lived. We stayed the weekend up there with them and ended up buying this mantle for $40. It was in an old carriage house that dated back to the 1800s. A lady there showed us the nails where they had hung their stockings on it. It had seen better days but the imperfections didn’t bother me in the least. So this is the picture of the day we carried out of the carriage house. You can see it had damage on the bottom but as you keep scrolling it doesn’t look the same now.

I love using old pieces to a new house so that it has character and charm.

This is how it stayed for years….we added a couple pieces of trim to the inside and filled a few holes. Then it got a good coat of oil based paint. This was before chalk paint came around.

I like to change up things obviously and the easiest way to do that is with paint. This was early last year when I painted it white to brighten up the room. I painted it with fusion mineral paint in white. So it has one more transformation to its final color…for now.

The entire room got a makeover late last fall and I painted the entire room in Benjamin Moore white dove. For the mantle, I ended up using a color called putty in Fusion mineral paint. The french doors and my back patio door I painted in revere pewter by Benjamin Moore which is almost identical to the putty color. Its a good greige color in a warm tone grey.

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