Every week or so, I like to make a room-by-room list of every single thing we need to get done, just to really stress myself (and William) out. One room that we don't have a million things to do in anymore is the den. Other than decor, it is finally coming together. Last weekend, I tackled a project that had been looming over my head for a few weeks now: the fireplace.  When we moved in, the fireplace had a mantel, but it was so ugly, we just ripped it out and never replaced it. It had a decorative routed edge and was painted with some weird textured, multi-colored paint. I wish I had a photo, but I don't. I'm not sure what look they were going for with it, but it was just plain ugly. The brick was already painted, which was fine with me.  It was covered really well and it seemed to be a decent paint job. The only problem is that the paint was a dingy off-white color, much like a lot of the trim in the house. (Why do people do this? White looks best!)  The hearth was also a mess. I'm not sure what it's technically called, but instead of being nice, square tiles, it has those red, cracked, misshapen tiles. It also looked like someone had polyurethaned over it or done some type of glaze gone wrong.

Similar to this, but with yellowing, peeling polyurethane on top. Really beautiful!

For this project, I decided to try a project from Young House Love and just paint the entire thing, except for the firebox because we have working gas logs. For the hearth, I painted 3-4 coats of white paint. I haven't done any type of glaze or top coat, and it may not need it. You can't use polyurethane on white paint because it will turn yellow with time.  The paint I used for the entire project was Olympic no-VOC kitchen and bath semi-gloss. Only one thick coat was needed on the bricks since it was already painted a similar color. It looks great on the bricks and the hearth, and has a nice sheen without being too glossy. We also use this paint for our trim. I love it - it looks great and there are no fumes!

Dingy bricks getting covered with white!

After a few coats on the hearth

We decided to go with a simple mantel - no routing or decorative edging, just a rectangle. I went back and forth on painting vs. staining but William convinced me to stain it, and I love it! We have a white couch and white curtains, so I'm trying not to add too much more white. First, William cut the piece to size and I used our orbital sander with 220 grit to smooth it out. To stain it, I used Minwax dark walnut. I haven't sealed it yet since no one really touches it, but I may put a coat of Waterlox on it just for good measure. To secure it, we are just going to use some liquid nails (glue). We will be wall mounting our TV and the mantel will just be used for some decorative items - if we were actually placing the TV on it, we'd probably look into securing it differently.



Hopefully my image quality will improve when I get a new phone - my current phone's camera is definitely on its way out! Even though we made some big strides on the fireplace with this quick project, there are still a few more things to do in this area:

• Mount the TV above the mantel


• Add some trim around the hearth to clean up the look


• Caulk area between bricks and side trim


• Glue mantel and waterlox


• Decorate mantel and hearth

So far, this fireplace makeover has been very cost efficient. The paint was $15 and we have tons leftover for trim around the house. The mantel piece was around $7. I used stain that we already had, but you can buy a small jar (and still have a ton leftover) for less than $5. The glue and waterlox we'll be using is something we already have on hand, too.  Overall, I'd roughly calculate that we spent less than $15 for the entire project considering we mostly used what we have and how much we have leftover.

Update: The fireplace paint held up pretty well, but I have done an additional coat of white paint on the hearth to be safe. I have also purchased some satin Minwax polycrylic and plan to do a clear coating on top of the hearth only. I would also suggest priming your surface, first. I use Kilz multi-surface primer and it works very well!