Before and After: My Fireplace

 

 Back in July Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special #41 was to show off our mantels.  That was just the boost I needed to makeover mine.  Now Donna has done it again… Saturday Night Special #49 is for the whole fireplace.  She is getting us to finish making our fireplaces look great! 

And mine needed help for sure.  It just wasn’t ‘together’. 

 So everything came off.  And that left me with the shabby, stained brick that was here when we bought the house.  Too bad I can’t power wash it like the front porch!  Since there is a stone facing project in the future, I’m not going to make any sort of spendy facelift for it. 

 First order of business was to spray paint the face of the fireplace.  That brass had to go away… far away.  I used Rust-oleum High Temperature spray paint in black.  This meant I had to do a LOT of taping.

And the firebox needed some help too.  First a good cleaning.  But I wanted something inside besides an empty log-holder.  Regular logs run the risk of being bug infested.  But then I thought of our stash of driftwood.  No bark for bugs to hide in and it looks really cool.  Fits with our home too. 

 I like the candles for when we don’t have a fire going. I don’t have them inside the firebox because it’s an awkward space to light them. So they will stay on the hearth in front of the firebox. But the black candle holders just got lost with all the black of the fireplace. Since our fixtures are brushed nickel they got a touch up to go with the rest of the room. The old candles were replaced with lovely blue ones from Pier One. They are the “ocean” scent I use with my reed diffusers.

Then I went shopping in my house and yard. (Free works well… right?)

  

 First thing I brought in was a scarf I bought in Mexico.  This will hide that stained brick.  It brings in the teal and green that I am using in the room.  This will be great until I find something else I like since I use this scarf! 

 I was down in my office and I spied these containers.  I bought them at Lowes last spring.  They are supposed to be trash cans although I never planned that use for them.  Actually… I didn’t have any plans for them.  They were just so pretty I grabbed them up knowing I would find the perfect use for them later.

 My pruning clippers and I went for a walk around the property. I came back with these branches. A little spray paint that I had used on the candle holders took them from shabby to chic.

I like this much better. I think Himself will be happily surprised when he gets home.