Fireplace Renovation
With all the snow that has been accumulating, there has been nothing better than to curl up in front of the fireplace. The warmth and the crackle of the fire makes for the perfect spot to ride out the remainder of this crazy winter we have been experiencing lately.
Though the fireplace hasn’t always been a sanctuary in our home.
Rewind to the winter of 2017 with lots of snow outside a drafty house and our refusal to turn on the furnace. The keys to the house were finally ours and demolition of the majority of the interior had begun. Left to the wayside was the dated orange brick fireplace with a painfully dirty chimney. It just wasn’t in the budget to completely revamp this corner of the living room at that time. So we slapped some primer and Benjamin Moore White Dove paint on the brick and called it good for a year.
During the summer, I didn’t even notice the fireplace until the weather started to get colder. It needed some more sprucing up to make its debut for the winter of ’18. Once the chimney was cleaned, we tore off the brown tile hearth.
Next came the paint for the inside of the fireplace.
We decided on a metallic black that would bounce the glow of the flames around. Also the pole holding the corner of the fireplace up desperately needed a new paint job. Painting the pole the same color as the inside of the fireplace box helped the pole to disappear. Below is what we used.
After the paint dried, it was time for the new hearth to be installed. We found a remnant piece of quartz in a dark grey that mimicked the look of concrete.
Knowing we were not the kind of people to chop and tend a real wood fire, we decided a gas fireplace would better suit our lifestyle. Luckily, the gas hook up is located outside, behind the fireplace. It was simple to plumb the gas line to the fireplace itself.
The finishing touch was to install the gas log insert.
I couldn’t believe how many options of faux logs there were to choose from! We ended up sticking to the basics to try to make the logs look as natural as possible.
After all is said and done, we are super pleased with how the fireplace turned out! It is very cozy to curl up in the recliner next to the fire while the snow falls outside.
