Lighting a Fire with a Fireplace Makeover, Part I: The Good, the Bad, and the Unexpectedly Ugly

So there is a reason you have never seen a blog post from me
that details the renovation of our living room.
Sure, pillows have been highlighted, shelf displays have been explained,
but there has never been a full-fledged, all-and-out feature on the room we
probably spend most of our time in (except for the kitchen, which you won’t see
for a while until I can get rid of that darn off-white oven…!). And the reason why? Our awful, dated fireplace.

At first, we were just excited to have a fireplace at
all. It had been years since we had
enjoyed evenings by a warm fire, and we were thrilled to finally have the
opportunity to enjoy such an occasion again.
However, after the original
honeymoon phase of acquiring our hearth, we found ourselves looking a little
more closely at what we had and realizing that it wasn’t all that…well…attractive. We had gotten rid of the pink accent wall
that originally highlighted the upper portion of the wall, but the mantle still
felt insignificant, the firebox still occasionally leaked smoke, and the brick
was just plain ugly.

So many things were going right in our living room…but even the most interesting accessories couldn’t keep our fireplace from being totally wrong. Years of smoke staining couldn’t be removed, and the brass was just plain bad!

At one point, soon after we had moved into our imperfectly
perfect old house, I remember standing out in the front yard and gazing
lovingly up at the brick facade of our home, wishing that willpower alone would
turn the brick surrounding the fireplace inside into a similar aged stone beauty…but
to no avail. Wiping, brushing, and
scrubbing using a variety of masonry cleaning products also did not make a
difference at all, so I resigned myself to a life of fireplace dissatisfaction
until the budget fairy might come and visit.
That is, until the brassy-metal firebox fell out of the fireplace and
nearly broke my husband’s foot.

It is said that necessity is the mother of invention, and in
the world of home décor addiction that I inhabit, this takes on a slightly new
twist…because nothing moves a potential design project to the top of the priority
list like a major repair or replacement (hmmm…that gives me a few ideas about
that oven…). So once it became painfully
(no pun intended, honey) clear that we needed a new metal box and door set, my
mind began to work as how to make this replacement a mini-renovation. First, a mental obstacle to overcome–it was
time to take a risk and make a big change as far as the brick, without breaking
the budget and as all my fellow decorators know, the best way to do so is with
a can of paint.

While this seemed like a simple and obvious choice, the
psychological challenge was being okay with painting a natural element. Ever hear the gasp most people make when you
mention painting wood molding white? The
same goes for stone and brick. In a
perfect world, every brick wall would be classic and beautiful, every stone façade
would be perfect in its natural state of being…but this is the real world, and
our brick was just plain nasty looking.
In order to make the painting feel like less of a mortal sin, I went
with a classic white. Not only was the
process a very easy one (make sure the surface is nice and clean, use a
not-so-expensive brush so you can smush it into all of the corners and crevices
without worry, and assume you will need at least two coats), but the results were better than expected. The dull, stained brick was a distant memory,
and the new crisp, white surface helped lighten a major wall in the room
tremendously. I also had a very generous
and talented masonry friend help me use concrete to smooth out the surface of a
small inset in the brick to prep it for a tile installation just below the
mantle, which I was sure would also add interest and sparkle to my makeover.

As far as the new firebox, gone was the dated brass monster
that harkened back to the days of Dynasty and Dallas (old one, not the new
one), and in its place we opted for a flat finish black front that feels
timeless. The bronze finishes were
interesting since chocolate brown is an accent in the room, and brushed nickel
is always a go-to in my book, but I like that this finish feels like it has
longevity while the others might tend to be trends the tire quickly for
something as significant as a fireplace.
We also added a fire back–a heavy metal sheet that leans against the
back of the fireplace behind where the fire burns and helps push the heat into
the room–which not only looks great with a vintage design engraved on it, but
also adds a functional bonus to the makeover.

Of course I was at this point flying high on my successes so
far. The paint looked great, the firebox
fantastic…so where to go from here? I
created a design plan that felt foolproof.
A little Carrera marble, a beautifully designed metallic wallpaper for
an unexpected accent, and a mid-winter school break to make it all come
together. And did it? Tune in next time to find out! J