Friends, I’m a mess. I caught a cold on the 2nd day of Caleb’s room redo and have been laying around like a unmotivated college student ever since. I breezed through illness season this year because of the new vitamins I’ve been taking, but finally dropped. Stress + sick kids + no sleep = Sick Mama.
All this time lying around (I used both lying and laying in this post because I can’t remember which is correct to save my life and I’m too lazy to Google it) has been well spent watching Hawaii 5-0 reruns on Netflix while researching home sprucing ideas on multiple open tabs.
These will be making an appearance in our home soon:
I’m also looking into options for this fireplace:
I can leave it as is and replace the candles and picture with a huge green plant likely from IKEA (fake but realistic looking) and the smaller cubby with white sticks and make teepee sticks to cover the gas logs for summer.
and
OR I could lightly whitewash it…a cheap but fairly permanent option:
If I use latex paint I could remove it later with Peel Away. Heat would ruin it though, so I’d need to keep it away from the fire box area. I could use Milk paint instead, but it will become one with the brick and not be removable at all. On the other hand, it’s heat proof and I could move right into the firebox with it.
This room is really dark and I’d love to brighten it up and (remove the soot marks–already tried scrubbing those off and it didn’t work.) What would you do?
I latexed a fireplace creamy/white years ago. I liked the lighter color a lot (it was in a dark room that needed it)…but as for stripping it that would be a really messy hard ordeal (I’m exhausted at the thought)… I would do whitewash if you are unsure. It would brighten the room and still let you see the brick. If you wanted it even lighter then you could paint??? I have a brick fireplace again that is 1970’s blah–it may get whitewashed in the near future or painted–I’ve already warned the hubs;)
Thanks for your input, Stacy. It’s such a hard decision! I’m leaning towards the milk paint so I can do the back of the fireplace too. It’s so dark and dirty looking. We really don’t burn it, because it’s really expensive on the gas bill. But I’d hate to ruin that option forever.
At a previous house, I primed the entire face of the fireplace bright white. I used a brush to get all the mortar, too. Then I gently rolled the face of the bricks with a light taupe color. That way the fireplace still had depth and the bricks still had texture. The imperfections in the bricks remained white. It looked really good. I currently have a room with a brick fire place and dark paneling. I am wanting to paint the paneling a light gray and the fireplace white. It has a white and gray marble mantle and hearth. Good luck! The best decision is what ever YOU want the most.
Jill, Both your fireplaces sound gorgeous. If I knew it was easily reversible, the decision wouldn’t be so hard.
What about a really pretty fireplace screen to cover the logs? They make them in different metals and designs and I’ve even seen some with stained glass. You might be able to find a good deal on one this time of year. Or you could cover up the logs with a few big fake ferns and make it be a greenery area with maybe a antique birdhouse on the shelf? 🙂
My sister has a similar fireplace color and couldn’t commit to paint, so she put a pale colored rug in front and hung some fabulous pendant lights above the hearth area. It looks great! Brightened up the whole area but did not require a commitment like paint or whitewash. Let me know if you want a photo.
Cricket, I’d love to see a photo!
Can I email it to you directly?
Yes! angela@groceryshrink.com