The Fireplace Project - Version 2

This weekend we had some work colleagues over for a Cinco de Mayo party (why do we celebrate Cinco de Mayo? Long story), including our house-flipper friend. After I showed off our new basement -- he was super-impressed by my tile selection in the bathroom thankyou -- I gave him the rundown of the fireplace project.

He had a great suggestion ... why pull all that wood work down? It's pretty nice and there's a chance ripping it down might uncover a nasty surprise. Do I want to fix drywall? Um no. He recommended I just cover up the tile within the mantel frame, pulling off the thin inside trim piece to give the stone a really clean finish.

I'll admit, at first I wasn't going for it. I want a chunky wood mantelpiece on top of all that stone (whine). But the more I thought about it, the more I recognized the wisdom. Less risk, less cost and a pretty great end result. Here's my "artistic" rendering of the final product ...


He has also used the faux stone I am planning to use and assured me it was easy to install. And liked the idea of painting the brass insert with some high-heat black paint to tone down that dated gold.

So, yeah, good talk. I'm sooo ready to get this project started.



Related Posts:
So, yeah, my new basement bathroom is glorious
Fireplace before photos
All the Fireplace Project posts

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