Fireplace Facelift

The day I found this house, long before it was ever ours, I visualized what we would do with the blah mantle-less fireplace. A year and a half later, after complaining about it one too many times, we got to work. This is by far the biggest project we have taken on inside the house and it wasn't as difficult as we thought it would be. I am so proud of my handy hubby. Thank you, baby, for taking my vision and making it real.

Before reconstructive surgery:

Builder basic: no mantle and blah tile that blended in with the walls.

Demolition begins:

My handy hero at work.

The artwork:

I have had my eye on this tile for almost a year. So glad it was never discontinued.



My boys finishing up the dirty work.

A clean slate.




New drywall.

Laying the tile glue. This is the only pic I have of this process as my hands were covered in grout shortly after this was taken. (Tilt head to left-I don't know why it wouldn't rotate.)

Sealing the deal

Facelift complete:

I am so in love with this thing! I can't stop looking at it and I can't wait to decorate my new mantle. I am so proud of 'The Hubs' who took my crazy dream ("you want me to grout these tiles?") and made it into a showpiece. He did all the demo, built the surround from scratch, painted and sealed it without my help because each process was to toxic for the growing baby. I think it is so much better...what do you think?