I installed the mantel myself and it was very easy. The bottom of the mantel, which is plywood, was poorly stained so I bought some fruitwood stain at the local hardware store and gave it a couple of coats and it looks beautiful. I used longer wood screws than the ones provided to give the mantel more strength and shimmed it to make it level. For the price this mantel is hard to beat. An excellent value.

There's usually quite a bit of swearing when my husband installs something I bought on the Internet, but not this time. It went up quickly, with minimal fuss. It was easy to paint - took the paint well. I think we did three coats of primer+paint product, but we were being picky, sanding in between coats. Finished product looks great!