Frederick Mantel Shelf, 60-inch, Unfinished Red Oak

I love this mantel. I have a home office that I'm making more formal office-like, and I bought this mantel to put on a blank wall so I could hang an antique mirror over it.I treated the mantel with pre-stain, then stain, then three coats of poly. Then I mounted it on my wall, mounted my mirror above it, and voila!It looks great. It's well-built. It took stain very well. I've received many compliments on it already.I am 100% satisfied with this purchase.

I do not usually write reviews of products but this mantel shelf was not only GREAT FOR THE PRICE but it is awesome looking also.Easy to stain and to install. LOOKS BEAUTIFUL. I was searching for mantel shelves for weeks and I couldn't find anything under $300 that looked nice. I still can't believe I paid only $100 for this shelf!If you have no idea on how to securely hang a painting on the wall then do not buy this - just call someone and pay them $500 or more.For everyone else... it is great!

I bought this mantel along with the leg and skirt kit and am overall very pleased with the quality and looks. I think it is a great value for the money and would definitely buy it again. As others have noted, the packaging isn't the greatest and I had to use some wood glue on one of the legs as it was a bit wobbly from shipping. However, none of the pieces were chipped or damaged in any way so it really wasn't that big of a deal. If installing the mantel alone it should be a pretty easy task for most DIYers. You just need to buy the right type of screws based on your specific needs and attach the included 2x2 to your wall (also suggests you use liquid nails which I did). You then screw the mantel to the 2x2 and you are done. When using the leg and skirt kit it can take a lot more effort because you have additional 2x2s to mount for the legs. There is also more measurements to take into account and everything has to line up properly so that the mantel will sit on top in the grooves. As was in my case, this may require some cutting of the legs to shorten them. I also had to trim the interior edges of the legs with my table saw so they would fit flush against the tile on my fireplace and the wall since the tile is raised. I had not planned on having to do this, but it was necessary in my case due to the width of the tile. If you are doing the full kit with the legs, I would plan for a full day when you include the priming and painting. If you were just doing the mantel alone then it would probably only take 2 - 3 hours. I've attached a picture of the finished installation if you want to see how it looks. Just know that the trim piece in my picture between the top tiles and the skirt/mantel is not part of the kit. It was already in place and happened to match the legs perfectly so we left it.

I bought the unfinished mantle shelf (and the legs) and stained it with English Chestnut stain to coordinate with my cabinetry. Excellent quality, ready to stain upon arrival, superb craftsmanship. Exceptional value. Highly recommend.I am not crafty or entirely motivated for projects like this, but transforming my ugly, 70's brick fireplace was so simple and relatively inexpensive that I'd do it again if need be.

Good price, looked nice. Painted easily. I kind of guess what the mounting was going to be like. In the end I had to modify it to fit my fireplace. The mantel comes with a 48" x 2" x 2" strip board to mount it to. You then would glue the shelf to this board (that fits on the inside.My studs were 56" apart, so I had to buy a longer 2"x2" board which was a minimal investment. Had to cut away about an 1.5" inward of some internal supports for the longer piece to fit. Didn't weaken it structurally. Worked great, just took a little bit more labor.

Easy to install it looks good I once it painted

I was a little apprehensive buying this and having it shipped. I wasn't sure about the quality, the grain, or if it would make the trip un-blemished. This mantle came well packaged (no damage) and is great quality. It required no sanding and the wood grain was perfect for me. I stained it with Minwax and applied 3 coats of polyurethane. It was very easy to mount to the bricks on my fireplace wall. I attached the included mounting board (a 2x2 about 3/4 the length of the shelf) with 5 masonry screws. The shelf is attached with six finishing nails (counter sunk and puttied) and a bead of liquid nails. It is solid as a rock.

Stained this mantle and put it up and it's beautiful! Fast shipping, good quality. It is not solid, which didn't matter to me but if you are looking for a heavy solid mantle, this is not it. But real wood and very pretty after stained.