I'm in Love.... - Finding Silver Pennies

with our fireplace! Does that sound corny? Perhaps, it does. How can something like a fireplace make you happy? Do you love your fireplace / mantel? Or, like our old one, does it leave something to be desired?

Our family infront of the old fireplace

We bought our ‘beach house’ here in Scituate nearly four years ago and slowly but surely we are making it our own. Like most of you, I’m obsessed with design shows. I love putting them on once the kids are in bed. I love HGTV. I’m an avid fan of Color Splash, Dear Genevieve, Divine Design, Sarah’s Summer House and Design Star (just to name a few). I tear pages out of Better Homes & Gardens, This Old House and Coastal Living with dreams of redoing our kitchen and other rooms.

You see, being a stay-at-home mom, I’m constantly seeing things that I want to change and fix. Little things that the more I look at them the bigger an issue they get. Anyway, back to the fireplace. Since we’ve moved in, I’ve looked at it every morning, noon and night and thought, “Yuck, I hate you 60’s orange brick. I want a shabby chic fireplace.” Don’t you agree with that sentiment? Here is the fireplace:

Before: Orange brick and broken slate hearth

I’m a big fan of Layla and Kevin and their blog The Lettered Cottage. One morning, I was drinking coffee and came across two of their blogs while trying to get some ideas for our own fireplace. One was Mantel Mania and the other was My $82 Fireplace Makeover. Check them out, you’ll definitely be inspired!

My first thought was to paint the fireplace all white and get a salvaged mantel a la Shabby Chic. After looking at various salvage yards we felt this was cost prohibitive and we couldn’t find one with the right dimensions. I also got some advice from Dianne at Hingham Lumber. She really got me to think about painting the brick and inside the firebox black. This was a huge step for me as I love light colors. She was so right. White would have just blended into the wall. Dianne is a great resource and will come to your home to consult you on color ideas if you buy Benjamin Moore Paints from Hingham Lumber. She is a lovely person and I highly recommend her design eye. Dianne also recommended Charles Barnard Carpentry and we loved him. Charlie is a very talented carpenter and amazing at masonry as well. We are looking forward to having him do more work for us in the Fall.

If you are interested in making over your own fireplace here is what we did:

Luke first chiseled out the hearth and the top layer of bricks

To our suprise we found the hearth filled with sand, beach sand! There was even seagrass in it. John and Conor had fun playing in this indoor sandbox!

Sand, sand and more sand! This was dusty business.

We then painted the outside brick of the fireplace with Benjamin Moore’s MoorGlo in Satin Black and painted the interior with a heat proof black paint used for ovens as we still use the fireplace in the colder months.

Charlie installed a slab of bluestone which we got for $137 at Plymouth Quarries and the custom mantel that he made. We are so pleased with the results.

After

We are so happy with the new fireplace and yes, I am so in love with it. We can’t wait to have a proper wood fire, crackling in it this winter, while the snow flakes fall outside (not to wish the summer away).