fireplace face-lift

When Joe and I bought our home a year and a half ago, we fell in love with the old 1920′s charm of our little bungalow. If you would have seen it with your own eyes, though, you would have thought we were crazy for wanting to make this house our home. It needed so much renovation that my head starts to spin thinking about the work we poured into it. Beneath all the purple, red, and coral paint, blue carpet, and Hawaiian wallpaper, however, we saw incredible potential.

Perhaps one of the biggest eye sores in our home was the fireplace. It was purple, completely filthy, and had six large pieces of tile set back into the brick. Just bizarre. The running joke was that there must be millions of dollars stashed away behind the tile, because why else would you design a fireplace to look like this…

Perhaps the largest project in our home renovation was turning our basement into a fully furnished apartment so that we could provide housing to three BCS students. In the past two years, we have had six of Joe’s students live with us, and from time to time we joke around with them about which one we like best. This year’s Favorite goes to Sam. Not our son, but “Big Sam” as our toddler likes to call him.

And here’s why…

Before we left for Texas, I was talking with Sam about how we’ve wanted to do something with the fireplace ever since we bought our house. We once got an estimate for a new fireplace cover, but weren’t willing (or able) to spend the $900.00 price tag.

Whenever I’m in a Do-It-Yourself mood, I hop on over to The Lettered Cottage for some inspiration. I met Layla a few years ago at Minnesota’s Junk Bonanza and have perused her blog ever since. When we got our estimate, I knew I had to come up with something else and remembered a particular post where Layla shared her $82.00 fireplace makeover.

I passed this idea onto Sam, and while we were vacationing in Texas, he went to work. He did an incredible job, and so did Joe, Ryan, James, and Ben, who lent a helping hand towards the end.

We are planning to change the mantle to a wider more distressed piece of wood, but for now, we are just going to keep the original. I’m so pleased with how it all turned out.

Now, time to decorate the mantle! I guess we’ll never know what’s behind those tile pieces.

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