Rockford the Fireplace

2 posts in 1 day!!! I finally have a few minutes to talk about finishing up the fireplace!! It was no easy task and it made me a little crazy but it look so much better!! Here’s the before:

Such a monstrosity!!!

When we first moved in I really like it. I liked the how the two vents and the actually fireplace looked like a face. (Hence naming it Rockford) but then as my living room started coming together it was looking more and more out of place. We thought about taking the fake rock off and dry walling then tiling or something but that seemed expensive. I think we might eventually do that but for now I already had the paint and decided to just go for it. You can read about the insane task of painting it here.

After I finished painting it. It’s actually more gray then white…

Then as I mentioned before my Step Dad Tommy works in construction and at the time he was building a house way up in the woods! The property owner had a mini mill and was mostly using trees from his property to build the house. I happened to call Tommy at just the right time saying I need a fireplace mantel! I really really need one! At work the next day, talks to the extremely nice homeowner and he trots down to his mill and makes me a mantel! For free!!! I couldn’t believe I was so lucky!

One day while  I was at work Tommy came and cut the rocks and installed the mantel for me! It was a little scary to walk in and see missing rocks but he assusred me he could fix it. After this step there was so much dust! it was nuts how much dust fake rocks make!

After 2 coats of dark mahogany stain

Finally after the rocks were reattached and 5 coats of stain. Excuse the Christmas stockings, this happened awhile ago.

Up close of the wood detail, I wanted it rough looking and grainy

And here's what it looked like last weekend after I added some paper bag hearts for Valentine’s Day:

So much better!!!