I think a thick yet simple wood mantle, wide on its face so that it comes down at least as far as the top of the large, pinkish stone left of center. Not sure how many inches in rea life - perhaps that would be 8 inches at least? I would like to see it supported by similarly simple wood corbels. I would probably seal the stone first to see what the colors look like before deciding on the color for the mantel, but I would probably go on the darker side to help balance the black firebox. Once that is in place, then you can pick accessories, but I would look for a few more substantial pieces, rather than a lot of small stuff. I would try not to put anything all the way to the outside edges of the mantel - pull them in a bit, or they feel as if they are trying to escape! LOL Let the ends of the mantel help define it as a mantel, rather than just a place to put stuff.

Christmas has been down for several days, and our LR mantel is back to the usual spare look: Here it is farther away. The antlers on the hearth we found embedded in a beaver lodge damming our creek, and the gazing ball is from the garden of our previous house. The painting can't be seen very well in either photo but it is an English landscape circa 1900: The library mantel needs work. The chimney breast goes up 14 feet so I can't get it all in the photo. Right now i put two majolica leaf plates, three birds and some brass candlesticks up. The photo over the mantel is an enlargement, a picture my dad photography took in Stratford- on -Avon. Despite the non glare glass it has faded a lot and I am planning to have it restored this year. The original was a riot of green, red and yellow.

First you might be able to check with the manufacturer to see if they are suited for walls. They also might be able to tell you exactly which notch of trowel to use. Our subway tiles were 3/8" thick and it definitely made the installation take longer. But we were DIYing so we were kind of on our own timeframe anyway. ;) We installed them on an original 1928 bathroom with somewhat wonky walls. In the tub area, we would have to set a course and let that set before we could build up. If we built too much at once, the whole thing would start to shift with gravity. On the walls, we placed a ledger board and used that to set the tiles. There were a lot of times where we were frustrated with tiles starting to slide, especially when working around tiny or detailed cuts. We let the tiles sit a long time before grouting. I think a week or so just to give them a chance to dry as much as possible. We grouted without incident but let that dry longer than the mfr recommended too. Everything has been up for a year and no issues.

A simple thick wood one in a bit darker color likesome of the darker stones