Fireplace Makeover in the Family Room

Today I'm sharing this fireplace transformation!

Remember this post about me doing some design and decor?

This was the first thing I took on after talking about color and rearranging furniture.

I don't mind the brick surrounding this fireplace.

It actually relates quite well with the color story going on in this room.

I think brick is fabulous and since the color of it was not a problem, we left it and just decided to change the center and mantle.

The good thing about this 'feature' that was done, is that all the wood was left raw.

Bad for touching it... easy slivers found here, but good for changing it.

Client N and I decided to paint it white. 

I made up some samples to show the difference between whitewashing, distressing and drybrushing, and plain ol' white.

We decided to start with a little bit of dry brush and distressing.

Distressed is in, and although this room will lean more towards contemporary, there are some old/antique items in here.  

A worn looking fireplace will look great in here!

It was a relatively easy project!

We used chalk paint and dry brushed it on.  There wasn't too much distressing needed.

We talked about some other fun things to do with this mantle and center piece, maybe down the road.

This is where we will start for now.

It looks great!

N is happy and I'm happy!

A few days later N asked about whitewashing the brick.  She felt the brick looked too orange.

It does look more orange, putting the stark white in there.

I told her to wait until we got the curtains up, to see how she felt.

The curtains are orange and red.

They speak to the fireplace and balance out the strong color throughout the room.

Indeed, as we got the curtains up it all came back together!

It looks great!