A Fireplace Makeover

I thought it would be fun to do a before and after post of our fireplace because it was one of the bigger transformations that we did to our fixer upper. It was also the transformation that I was most excited about!

When we first toured our home, we fell in love with the little fireplace area. We could see ourselves sitting there having coffee in the morning or snuggling up next to the fireplace reading or working on our laptops. The fireplace extends off of our kitchen, so it felt really special to essentially have a fireplace in the kitchen. However, we hated how it looked. It was covered in corrugated metal and the room was painted purple. It felt dark, dingy and cold.

We had high hopes for this fireplace of ours. It felt like it had the potential to be a really beautiful space and we were anxious to get going. The first night we got the keys to our new house, Dave and I decided that the very first thing we wanted to do was take the down the corrugated metal to see what was behind the fireplace. To be honest, we were a little nervous because we had no idea what was going to be underneath all the metal – was it going to be an open gap, was there tile, was there brick, was there dry wall? We had no idea! We got our wrench (hah! bless us – we didn’t even own a drill yet) and unscrewed the hardware that was lodged in the metal. Slowly our fireplace was unveiled and it was in fact, beautiful brick. I think we then danced around and celebrated for a few minutes. We were so relieved by what we saw and couldn’t believe anyone would ever cover up such a thing!

Once the fireplace was uncovered, the flood lights were in, the floors were redone, and the popcorn ceilings were scraped, we didn’t feel like it needed that much more work other than a fresh coat of paint. And that’s when the real fun began – picking out paint colors, furniture, pillows, and decorative pieces.

It took us a long time to find the right chairs for our fireplace seating area. We looked at West Elm, Crate and Barrel, Wayfair, and then eventually stumbled across these Ikea armchairs and are super happy with them. They even have a cute button detail on the back. We got the wooden framed mirror at Target and our rug and coffee table from HomeGoods to help warm up the space. The velvet throw pillows are from WorldMarket. I’m excited to swap them out for the different seasons. I love the copper color for fall/winter but am thinking we need something lighter and brighter for spring/summer! I also thrifted a lot of the decorative pieces – the baskets, the plant pots and the jars. The art we have is a poster from Photowall and I love how it hangs and ties everything together. To be honest though, I’m torn on whether to keep the poster there or put it at the top of our stairs. It really looks great in both locations!

Right now Photowall is also offering a 25% discount for all Everygoodthingblog readers using the discount code “everygoodthingblog2021”. The discount code can be used as many times for the full month of April. They have all sorts of cool posters and prints but what I also found amazing was their wallpaper selection. I’d love to do an accent wall or two with some cool wallpaper and am thinking that could be a fun upcoming project?

Lastly, I have to say Samson is the king of our fireplace area and he loves it the most. You can often find him curling up on the rug, lounging. I think he loves it the most because he gets to watch his backyard and the pantry at the same time. He’s definitely got his priorities figured out!

Before:

After:

Before:

After: