Choosing the right mantel style can be daunting. The fireplace is the heart of the home with the mantel enjoyed year-round and always a favorite to decorate through the seasons. In this Featured Project, we walk through a mantel selection with the fabulous Egypt Sherrod of HGTV’s Married to Real Estate. In Season 2, the Episode 2 is titled “All’s Well in Roswell”. It follows a couple relocating from Kansas for work who need Egypt’s help finding a home in Roswell, Georgia, but houses are in short supply. With a newborn baby, three dogs and their work beginning soon, Egypt and Mike have big expectations to meet on short order. In this episode, our Bolero Mantel was selected. It’s obviously pretty, but beyond that what made it such a good choice for this room? Let’s take a look at a few key points.

Overall aesthetic

This space needed to be a blend of time-honoured classiness but also uplifting. The Bolero is a very traditional style of mantel with a sweeping arch that draws the eye to the fire. A linear gas unit makes this a more modern look instantly. The arch itself is a strong architectural statement and arches need to be upheld with similar elements. This renovation wasn’t large enough in scale to start building arches into the walls or the windows, so soft curves to support the look were added through the furniture.

Size of the mantel

The room is not too large, so it can’t support a big voluminous mantel – it would overpower the room, and also reduce the usable floor space. The Bolero looks grand but has a fairly even profile that only comes into the room 10?. We also have a nice balance between the windows. The mantel has about 5? from the window jamb to the mantel profile giving lots of “room to breathe”. For height, it is just over the halfway mark up the wall. You want to have your mantel about midway, or a little higher for an extra wow factor. This ensures your mantel has sufficient presence regardless of depth.

Color

This space needed to be grounded. There is so much going on in the details and the furniture, but the mantel is a calm neutral color that draws the eye and lets it rest. The darker color lets you know where the focal point is in the space and this lets you be playful with the elements around it to create a unique space!