Fireplace Makeover

Hi there!

Ok, so a little about whats been going on, we bought our first home mid September of this year and while basically 90% of the things we loved and wouldn't change, there were a few things that we wanted to update right away, the paint color on the walls, the 70's wood paneling, etc. The first change we started with was this hideous lava rock fireplace.

This is what it looked like before, yellow walls, yellow fireplace and staged furniture.

Don't get me wrong, I have seen lava rock fireplace's come out nicely when done right but this, this was just not done well. The yellow tone made the house darker which I didn't think was possible and the paint on the fireplace was basically poured on, there were drips of paint running down the rock all over the place. It was bad, trust me. So we decided to demo it and put something up that was more our style.

Take a look at how the yellow walls darken the kitchen and how it clashes with the gray tones.

I will post before pictures of the kitchen later on and the 70's room but I wanted to share the fireplace and how great it turned out.

Bye bye ugly lava rock!

Here's what it looked like after all of the rock and the mantel was removed. We still had to get inside the fireplace to remove the old piping and insulation that was previously in there from an old insert. I would much rather have a wood burning fireplace and now in California, they are no longer building homes with fireplaces like this. I grew up at my grandparents with a wood burning fireplace and I enjoyed it so much that I knew that's what I wanted in our home.

Cement board went up and I had my brother build me a wood mantel and I stained it dark. This is with one coat of stain. I ended up doing 2 coats. Don't mind my dog, he thinks hes priority haha

Little by little the stone panels began to be installed and what felt like forever of construction, seriously. I am so impatient when it comes to this type of stuff. FINALLY the fireplace was complete, well the stone anyways.

The mantel with 2 coats of stain made such a huge difference. When you get up close, the wood grain is absolutely beautiful. Next we ripped out all the gross stuff inside, I then cleaned the interior brick with some soap and water and began painting. I used this Hi-Temp Paint which worked really well. I didn't think I was going to have enough to cover everything but a little goes a long way. I still had almost 1/2 a can left when finished. Be warned!!!! This stuff is very smelly and you need a well ventilated room. I turned on all the ceiling fans, put a rotating tower fan in the room, opened all the windows AND wore a mask, still so smelly. So just be sure to take precautions when using this stuff.

First I went in and painted all of the grout lines to make sure they had a really good first coat on them, that way when I went over it again they would be fully covered.

At one point, a daddy long leg just dropped right down from inside the fireplace and I about burned the house down, but I eventually came back from having a panic attack and finished painting. It dries faily quickly, covers well and the smell didn't last all day which is good because my baby would not have appreciated coming home to all that stank.

Annnnnd FINALLY, the fireplace was finished!!! With a few little touch ups here and there, paint on the drywall, trim on the floor, this project can be checked off our list!

Here is how I decorated it for my baby's first birthday.

I can't wait to decorate the mantel for our first Christmas here. It came out perfectly and we are so glad with how it turned out. We can burn firewood in here, but at the moment we are enjoying it as is.

#fireplace #homedecor #renovation #mantel #birch #stackedstone #stone #woodburning #makeover