Atop a fireplace, a stone mantel beckons. Its timeless look and natural elements is as close you'll get to the great outdoors.
Actually, stone was one of the first materials used around the 16th century. As fireplace history will have it, stonewalls were cut and fireplaces were formed. Among the choices of stone today are marble, granite, slate and limestone.
There are a lot of prefabricated versions of the aforementioned floating around but you may also want to consider cast ston...