Mounting antique fireplace surround

Well we bought this antique fireplace surround and have wrestled it in the house. 

After cleaning the antique store dust and excess lead paint off it'll be my job to get it attached to the wall.

I'm thinking lag bolts into the studs, but I'm open to suggestions.

I'll take pictures of existing holes. It looks like they were just lined up with the studs wherever that ended up being.

Are you going to strip it?  Once that is done and you see how good/bad the wood is, decide then.  Lags to the studs are fine, but you have to cover their heads if the wood is nice.  You could actually do something like hanging a picture, male-female slots with one bolted into the studs, won't be seen from the outside; make them bottom at the same time the frame hits the floor.

Dan

Bolts into studs + keyhole slots on the back of the fireplace = hidden fasteners and flush mounted fireplace

Does the woman in the photo realize her butt is all over the interwebs?  LOL.  The last fireplace surround I removed had two large eye bolts sticking out from the back, and hung from two hooks protruding from the wall.  Odd.  

I would mount it how it was originally mounted. Either big nails into the studs (like really big nails) with wood filler or screws with wood filler. Screws mean you gotta do some digging in wood filler to remove it. Nails means you can just pry it off the wall then push the nails out from the back side. 

Is this going to be used with a pre-fabricated fireplace product of some sort?  Be sure to check the allowed clearances to a combustible mantle. These are established in the lab when the product is being certified through UL or CSA, according to ANSI standards. It would not be a good idea to violate the installation guidelines.

I did exactly this at our farmhouse last fall.  In my case, I have paneling over the log cabin walls (which will come down eventually) and a '70s-era fireplace (that sticks out about 4 inches) where the cut stone used to be.  This type of applied fireplace is from a little later period, but I like the look. 

If possible, I'd mount it flat, directly to the wall like it was intended.  What I had to do was to add oak boards to box it out from the wall.  Then I used angle brackets on the top that were hidden by a new wider board on the top.  Eventually I will encase the harth in something less disco and add field stone around the mouth of the fire box.

By the way, be VERY careful using paint stripper or heat on the paint when removing it.  It's very easy to loosen the veneer.  This happened a little on the columns of mine.  I injected wood glue and wrapped them in surgical tubing to re-glue.

We went with lag bolts above the top shelf. Because she wanted it flush mounted and didn't mind my easiest executed idea.

She likes the patina so we're not stripping it. 

I'll ask how she feels about the butt shot but I think it's a nice one and she's clothed so I don't think it'll make many waves in the vast array of pornog known as the interwebs.

I'm thinking about using a cleat on the wall and a plywood board to mount some thin bricks to for look. There are no fireplace or fireplace alternative plans for this bad boy.