November 8, 2018

Our Living Room Fireplace Makeover

Well hello again. How’s everyone’s week going? This week has been a brutal one for me. I’ve had some personal stuff come to a head and it has me out of sorts and super distracted. I’m just having one of those I’m-not-giving-my-kids-the-attention-they-deserve-and-I’m-falling-behind-on-all-the-housework-not-to-mention-the-projects-I-have-in-the-works-and-I-just-suck-at-life kind of weeks. I’m trying to cut myself some slack because I know it’s temporary, but sheesh mageesh my brain is a discombobulated mess. So I apologize in advance if this post is confusing, has links that don’t work, or is generally just sub par.

What ISN’T sub par, though, is this stunning makeover I did on our living room fireplace. I’m not usually one to toot my own horn, but this turned out better than I could have possibly imagined. It is such an impactful update and it was so easy and inexpensive!

So here is what our fireplace looked like before. Completely unoffensive. Totally benign. We probably could have lived with it for many years. But also very blah.

As you can see, I had already done a test run of the stencil on an extra piece of tile I found. Oh yes, I don’t think I mentioned – this is STENCIL. There was no demo, no special tools for cutting and edging tile, no adhesive or grout – this was just paint and stencil. In fact I took a picture of my supplies because I didn’t think people would believe me.

As you can see the stencil is not pictured because I took this photo after I was done with the fireplace, and I had completely decimated it in the process. But here is a screenshot of what the stencil looked like.

Unfortunately the Etsy shop that made my stencil is now closed! Wah wah. But here is a similar shop where you can purchase these art deco style stencils, and – here’s the key – they offer several sizes for customizing to what you need. Why is that so important? Well when you are looking to stencil a space whether it’s a wall or a piece of furniture, you ideally want your stencil to begin and end clean. In other words, you don’t want your design to appear cut off in weird places and look lopsided or sloppy. In the case of my fireplace, there are only 8 full size tiles on the bottom. All of the tiles on the sides and top are cut to fit the space making the “weird cut-off” element somewhat unavoidable. So I decided to get a stencil to match the size of a full-size tiles (mine are 12″x12″) and work outwards from there. I didn’t really know what the heck I was doing, but hey, if it didn’t work out it’s just paint! Speaking of, I used a knock-off chalk paint I ordered through Amazon. I’ve used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in the past and to be honest I couldn’t tell any difference using this. Oh and it’s half the price mind you. So here is my first coat of Renaissance Chalk Paint in Old Linen.

After a second coat I was good to go to begin stenciling. For this portion I used Renaissance Chalk Paint in Gothic Grey. Here is tile #1 in progress and complete.

I had a chalk paint brush from a previous project, but you can purchase one here. There are a couple of tips to keep in mind when you are painting using a stencil:

Ensure your stencil isn’t going anywhere. Here you can see I taped it down. Sometimes around corners and edges that can get tricky. Just do the best you can and know you can always go back and detail with a tiny brush later.
Don’t have too much paint on your brush or it will bleed. My process involves pouring some paint onto a paper plate, twirling my brush around in it, and then blotting most of the paint off onto a paper towel until I have very little paint on the brush. I know, “very little” is objective. Just know it’s alway better to have too little than too much.
Start in the middle and work outwards from there to ensure symmetry. Okay so as you can see I broke my own rule and started to the bottom right. I could have started in the middle but I didn’t. I knew I had eight full size tiles so I just knocked those out and here is how it looked.

This is where it got tricky. I did my best using the full size stencil in various ways; bending and folding and contorting as best I could. But I ended up cutting it up. A lot. By the end I was piecing parts of it together with tape to get certain edges and corners. If I were to do this again I would have purchased an identical backup stencil. I probably would have ended up cutting both, but at least I would have had more stencil to work with. Also for touch up it would have been nice to have a stencil remaining. So instead I did a good amount of touch up by hand with a tiny detail brush, and topped it all with a clear polycrylic sealant. Here’s a picture of when I had just finished and it was drying. Blue tape is on point!

And here it is today.

This project has by far been my most impactful for the least investment. When you walk in our front door you can’t miss it and I’ve seriously gotten more compliments on our fireplace than any major remodel we’ve done! It has become the backdrop for family photos and a charming statement in our otherwise traditional home.

Overall this project cost: