Have you ever had a significant piece of furniture, or something built in that you just can't stop starring at? Not because it's pretty... Because you hate but you cant look away and everyday you say "I'm going to paint that/get rid of that this week!" Well I've been saying that for a year now and FINALLY I got around to painting the fireplace...
Originally I wanted it just whitewashed. I love the look of whitewashed brick but after a coat of it, I wasn't a huge fan of OUR fireplace being whitewashed. I'm not sure if it's because it was a more maroon red so when I did that it just turned pink? Or maybe it was the operator... That's probably it.
I didn't look up a tutorial on Pinterest, although I probably should have... I just mixed a cup and a half of water with a cup and a half of that Ivory paint I ruined our bathroom with and took an old rag and rubbed it lightly on the brick. I will tell you that I used WAY too much paint and water. I thought I wouldn't have enough but I ended up using not even close to half of that mixture. It also didn't take me NEAR as long as I thought it would! It took probably close to an hour to do the whole thing. I don't know what I was procrastinating about.
I took pictures and was ready to blog about it and when I got the pictures on the computer, it was horrible! The brick just looked pink! I couldn't give you that for a blog post so I went back in and put another coat on. Which then looked like I just painted it. But I love it so much more. I stepped back and realized I hated the gallery wall I had up... Story of my life. One thing after another haha so I went and took it down and switched it up a bit and now I love it. There's a lot going on but it's organized and clean whereas before there was so much going on and it was dark and didn't match the rest of the room at all.
Here's a before...
And after...
I'm glad I got this done when I did. Now I can decorate the mantle for Christmas and it won't just disappear into the dark brick.
I added some simple and somewhat symmetrical décor to either side to keep it clean and neat but still add some interest.
Keeping with the symmetrical theme for the gallery wall. I just painted some big old shutters I had laying around and moved the gallery into the middle. I kept the same theme of pictures (our maternity pictures and a picture of B when he was first born) and neutral frames. I added some rusty elements in for some dimension and there you have it. A super simple and symmetrical gallery wall.
I hope you got an idea of how to update your fireplace. If that is something that's bothering you in your home, you can EASILY and quickly update it using thing's around your home and some paint. I was so surprised at how fast and easy it was. Have a wonderful week everyone and as always thanks for stopping by!!
xo- Savanna
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