Whew! I have been working so hard on getting this living room area together the last few weeks and it feels so good to have this space back and available to use!
This room is kind of a weird one. It was an add-on room to the original house, the area used to be the patio, and it wasn’t really done in a really “correct” way…they left the walls with the outdoor wood paneling on them rather than putting in solid indoor walls, they left the outdoor windows that go from the kitchen to this room in the wall (metal frame and all), and the door frame that was previously a sliding door to the porch is still there with an awkward step down into the room.
But, the one thing I was happy to find was that underneath the (terribly ugly, old old old) carpet was cement. I was excited because I have always wanted to have a cool, modern cement floor in my home and to try my hand at acid staining.
The acid staining post is coming next week so if you’re interested in how I got this fun turquoise floor then stay tuned for that! But even removing the carpet and getting some new furniture, and painting the walls pink (!) there was still this big, ugly rock fireplace impeding the flow of the new space. Something had to be done about it!
I know some of you will just be SO SAD that we straight up painted over this antique (and by “antique”, I mean 1970’s…) rock fixture but maybe it will placate you to know that the plans are to tear down this whole house anyway so, really, what harm could it do?
I personally, could wait to say goodbye to this rock:
So, this room did take me a lot of work to put together but the tutorial for painting over this fireplace is SUPER EASY and the whole process actually went very quickly. I didn’t think it would to be honest. I didn’t know what it would take to get the right adhesion or sheen but really, it couldn’t have been easier!
And don’t you think this new gray rock was exactly what the space needed? I mean, can you imagine that turquoise floor and pink walls with the above mixture of yellow and orange rock? UCK!
I had mentioned before that simple, cost-effective, but high impact renovations were just what we were looking for for this home as we don’t know how long we will be here. And this project definitely fits the bill for all of those criteria. The new fixture packs quite a punch I think and the other great thing about a painted makeover is nothing quite makes a room feel as clean as a fresh layer of paint. And trust me, this room really needed a good cleaning…
The great thing about this tutorial is that it can also be used on brick, which I know is a more common fireplace to have and want to update. My parents really hesitated to paint their red brick fireplace (or maybe it was yellow…) a few years ago but Malissa and I convinced them to go white and they have loved it ever since! I know brick takes a little more time and finagling with all the groves and indents but its still a relatively easy project.
So, stay tuned for the tutorial for both this fireplace and the floor coming within the week!
