Fireplace Makeover
So after moving into our new home in September we did a lot in a short amount of time. A lot of this consisted of paint. I loathe painting but it was necessary. We painted the entire inside of the house a neutral gray, painted and repainted every base board, window sills, staircase.. you name it. Basically I never wanted to look at another paint brush again, but again it was so worth it. The house transformed from a dated 80’s house to the modern rustic cozy home I wanted. However….there was one thing that needed an entire makeover and it was literally in the center of the home. The fireplace. It was an eyesore and I was determined to make it a white washed rustic masterpiece. I researched all of the ways to bring my vision to life and finally decided to do my own version of the “German Schmear” technique but with kind of a white washed vibe with only hints of texture. I decided against doing just a white paint with water (a true white washed technique) because I was afraid it would fall flat. I wanted the fireplace to look like it was old and had some wear but texture, not just “painted” white. I suggest doing your own research on both of these techniques (and others) to see what fits your style and home best.
I put off doing it for probably the first two months of us living here because I knew it would be quite a project to tackle and honestly I was a LITTLE nervous. No going back right? But I thought “Hey even if it turns out awful, nothing can be worse than what it looks like now” ;)
So one weekend I finally decided I was doing this thing. Once finished…I stood back and seriously could not contain my excitement. It was even better than I imagined and I was seriously so proud of the outcome! It completely transformed the living room into this beautiful centerpiece for the home. The old fireplace looked so dark and dingy and made the bright living room actually darker but this makeover made everything so light and airy and just fit perfectly like it was always supposed to be there. I also ditched the brass front cover and old mantle and ordered a new mantle believe it or not from Wayfair.com. It was exactly what I had in mind for a mantle and I wanted something authentic looking as far as a real wood beam look. I’m seriously so impressed with the quality of the one I got! It was perfect.
We are ecstatic with the outcome and honestly it’s one of my favorite parts of our home now!
After I posted the before and after photos so many people messaged me asking me how I did it because they want to do it too! So this blog is long overdue but I figured this would help some friends and clients out as well as any strangers who stumble upon this and were like me, searching the interwebs on how to makeover my ugly fireplace and a bit lost where to start.
Obviously this blog is mainly our photography work and will stay that way but don’t be surprised if you see a few home projects or interior design blogs thrown in with this house journey.
Here she is in all of her makeover beauty!
So here’s how I did it…
Approx time: 8-9 hours over two days, start to finish
You will need:
Joint compound (in white) - you can find this at any hardware store and make sure you keep it covered while using it, it will get dry and you don’t want that
Small-medium rubber spatula (like the one you use when baking and stirring in a mixing bowl)- HIGHLY recommend this over a paint brush. It worked perfectly to get in the grooves and grout of our stone but would also be great for brick
Latex gloves
Big sponge
Bucket for water
Tarp or plastic to lay down for the floor - it can get messy
Start by vacuuming the entire fireplace followed by wiping it down with a wet rag or sponge. Make sure all of the dust and dirt is gone. This is important!
Then dive in to your joint compound with your rubber spatula and start spreading it onto your fireplace. I would do about 3-4 stones at a time as well as the grout surrounding them (make sure to really get in there and cover the grout, I wanted this part pretty solid so the stones popped). Before the joint compound would dry on each little section I would do, I would take my sponge and dip it in my bucket of water, squeeze it out so it was just damp and then go back over the stones I just did with the wet sponge. The joint compound dries fast…so it is important to do it in smaller sections like this. In order to achieve that aged look with the stones still slightly peeking through, this whole process of spreading the joint compound + going back over the sections with the sponge before it dried was essential. I personally didn’t want it to be solid white with no contrast of the stones somewhat showing, BUT if you did want it solid then you may want to not do the wet sponge part. The joint compound also dries A LOT whiter than when you first put it on so keep that in mind by doing a thinner layer at first!
And that was pretty much the process over and over until I finished. I left the bottom part of the fireplace for last obviously because I was standing on it for most of the project so that made it easier. The cool thing about this type of project is you can completely make it your own and tweak it to whatever you want it to be in the end. it was a huge bonus that it was also inexpensive and honestly not as time consuming as I expected it to be.
I hope this was helpful and happy home projecting to all of my inspired people out there!