Finally finished my mantel and surround

I finally finished my first mantel and surround. The pictures show the fireplace without any tiles; then the non finished mantel and the finished piece installed. This was really a learning project. I found a couple of videos on the subject but I really followed the instructions in the book by Steve Penberthy “Constructing a Fireplace Mantel.” Everything was going well until the finishing. The Client wanted Cottage White from Sherwin Williams, so I used their premium classic. I brushed on a primer and then the final coats. The first coat was a disaster. It did not go on evenly and did not blend. After it dried, I sanded it down to smooth it out and tried another coat. Again the results were poor and did not blend. I called the paint store and was told by the manager that you can not go over the paint while it is wet because it has a fast drying time and it will cause it to skip and grab, for a lack of a better description. He advised me to use an extender in the paint and only paint 2 to 4 inches at a time, which wasn’t going to help me now that the paint was dried. I have talked to others who really like this paint but I was very disappointed. So, since I was really upset with the results I decided to started over and I stripped the two coats of paint and the primer off, washed it with TSP to remove any oils or residue from the stripper and sanded the entire mantel down to the raw wood. I went to Vista Paints and had them make a Sherwin Williams formula for Cottage White in their “Luster Lac – Premium lacquer” – 60 sheen. I first sprayed on their white lacquer undercoat, let it dry and then lightly sanded. Then sprayed 3 coats of the 60 sheen, lightly sanding between coats. It was a lot of work but I was happy with the end results.
As a matter of information the fireplace had a very wide firebox and the owners only wanted the mantel 50 inches high so we had to play around with the dimensions to make it look decent. Actually my wife has the eye for this concept so it was really a brain storming session with my wife, the owners and me.
Thanks for looking at my project
El

-- Elvin, Southern California, "How great would life be if we lived a little of it everyday"