From drab to fab: A fireplace makeover...

October 31, 2013

From drab to fab: A fireplace makeover...

After months of staring at the fireplace in the living room, my fiancé decided it had to be changed. He’s been talking about working on it for awhile now; the old, loose red tile that made up the fireplace hearth just wasn’t doing it for him. After doing quite a bit of research, he started taking me around to different places to show me his ideas about replacing the hearth ~ he wanted a solid surface, one big slab of something, be it granite, slate, marble, etc. The “something” was left up to me, he said ~ he would do the labor.

Even though the fireplace didn’t bug me the way it bugged him, that was a deal I couldn’t turn down. And now, after several weeks of work, our fireplace makeover is finished ~ and it is fabulous, as you’ll see. My fiancé really did an absolutely amazing job.

Here’s what the fireplace looked like before:

A bit old and dated, particularly that red tile hearth. Below is what it looked like after the insert and red tile were removed. It’s not looking like much, as you can see. Once the tile and old mortar were out, my fiancé had to level the cement underneath, which required a bit of sanding and then a thin layer of self-leveling cement. The sanding, of course, meant dust everywhere. We did our best to contain it and put drop cloths over the furniture we couldn’t move out of the room, but it still seemed like it took me a couple of weeks to get rid of it all.

Now we’re getting somewhere. The hearth is in and I spent a couple of hours laying out the marble subway tile we chose to cover the brick. Emily helped, of course.

And finally, here’s what it looks like now, after our little renovation:

Isn’t it gorgeous? I absolutely love it. It is so elegant and classic and beautiful. Everyone who has walked into our home thinks the whole thing is marble, but the hearth is actually granite with a marble look that we had cut to size. Then I picked out marble tiles in the same colors to cover the brick.

A couple of close ups:

We thought the light marble would brighten up that space ~ the red brick was pretty dark. And I wanted to make sure we chose something classic that would look good 30 years from now.
I just love what the fireplace makeover does for the room ~ it makes everything seem more elegant. Since the fireplace has always been the main focus of the living room, I couldn’t be happier. What do you think?