Fireplace Update, Phase 1

Our beautiful beach house was built in the 1980's and, while we love most everything about the house, there are a few things on our "project list" that need updating. For instance, most of the brass light fixtures have been replaced with ones we prefer - mostly reclaimed from ReStore or other thrift shops.

These two brass-and-glass were replaced with two great finds (below).

The one in the back came from ReStore, the front one came from Craig's List. A third, a fan fixture from the same set, we found at Goodwill!









Other updates have included minor remodels in the guest and half bathrooms, but I'll save those for another blog. Today we're talking fireplaces...

Here is our 1980's fireplace, complete with pink monster tile and a floating oak shelf that's too small for the wall and the fireplace.

Another, older photo showing it in the room (yes, that fan/light fixture is gone!)










Since our dream river rock fireplace is not in the budget, our interim solution (aka "Phase 1") involves paint and reclaimed wood. I had just finished building some bookshelves from a section of our wooden fence that blew down last winter, so decided to see how that wood looked around the fireplace.

I propped up a few pieces and asked friends for their opinions. Response was positive - yay!






After reading online about painting tile, I had a few colors laying around, so I painted some leftover tiles (another project), positioned them around the fireplace and again asked friends for their input.

Um, not so good... So I took my photo to the Sherwin Williams website and used their nifty design tool to "paint" my tile with other colors. The response was much better - and green won the day.

I made a trip to our local True Value to get some Rustoleum spray paint - Spruce Green for the surround, and hammered Brown for the hearth. We removed the old mantel and hauled it off to ReStore, then taped up the surrounding walls and TV. It took a few days to clean, spray, dry and respray but I loved the result.

First I painted the hearth:

Then the surround (a few days later):

Lessons-learned - 1) wear your mask (first day I didn't - whoa, headache time!), 2) windows and doors open and fan on also mean the air is moving -- duh (a light spray went beyond my paper/tape and took some time to clean up).

I loved the look so much I was tempted to leave the fireplace as is!










But no, I had already started building the mantel - two side boards, two cross boards and a box. Sounds pretty simple, right? Here's my plan:

Here are some of the pieces - I laid them on sawhorses to get the straightest, flattest ones, then marked them with blue painter's tape.






My plan called for notching the uprights to provide some support for the cross boards. The tools in my "shop" are pretty simple. Here's my first attempt at the notches:

Not too bad :o)

The box was not easy - I should have done more research. That, and I changed my mind several times mid-stream. Here's a more detailed sketch I made while working on the design.





But finally it was ready - here is the first dry-fit:

After some tweaks, I pieced it together in the living room with some help from the cat.







And finally, the finished project:

Started the project by soliciting input from friends on April 3rd - put the final product up on April 12th. I think it looks pretty darn good.