here is an option that i have found works great. buy pickup loads of spoiled baled hay. sells for about fifty cents a bale. takes flakes about 3 inches to 4 inches thick and scatter them out in a checkerboard pattern. you can do a solid pattern, takes more hay. but it works wonders. the hay keeps the rain from impacting the soil (which is what causes the erosion). yet the rain goes through eventually, while the hay is decomposing and making soil. plus the hay sprouts new grass from the hay. if you have a really rocky but close to flat area, leave the bales tied up and lay them with the straw sticking up. place them in a solid pad, and plant directly into the bales. works great for potatoes. as the potatoes grow, the bales decompose into soil. good luck.

Having just gone through this process my advise is to get the proportion correct first. There is no standard mantle, no standardized sizes and getting the correct leg dimensions, frieze and mantle shelf are all important. We did this with poster board prototypes. In addition I would know your towns fireplace construction code before designing anything.

Hi Cameron! I did a layout of my youngest son who fell asleep on the floor one afternoon after we had returned from a day at the beach. He is laying on his back, arms stretched way over the top of his head and his legs sprawled. I cut each of them in the shape of a BIG fat letter "Z" I mounted them on the page so that one small part of one "Z" overlapped the next one. I titled it "Catching some Zzzzzzzzzzz's" It turned out really well! ~Mar~

Thanks Christopher_H - i just posted on home decorating forum.