Happy Tuesday! I cannot believe it’s been a whole year since my husband and I totally updated our fireplace. I know it’s been a while, but we did not have a blog at the time and the transformation is too good not to share. Thankfully I have before, during and after pictures for you! To this day I am in LOVE with how it turned out.

When we first moved in I had no idea how we were going to make that hideous thing look good. It was a complete eyesore. The previous owners had painted it an awful black with an almond colored cement mantle, yuck! The fireplace is the first thing you see when you open our front door. Considering it is also the focal point of my living room, I wanted it to be beautiful!

I originally wanted to reface it with white washed brick and replace the mantle completely but that just wasn’t in our budget. After getting some inspiration from Pinterest I showed my husband what I liked. I honestly had no idea how we could turn something I hated so much into something I would be happy to have as the center of my home.

He told me he had a plan but I have to address admit…I was pretty skeptical.

We decided to paint the brick white. I have to say that I was nervous it would come out bad but we had nothing to lose so I decided to go for it. After washing it down really well and about 5 coats of paint I was starting to see the diamond in the rough!

For the insert I chose a flat black high heat resistant spray paint by Rustoleum. Painting it proved to be quite a task! I could not remove the insert so I had to work around the newly painted fire place and the floors. I taped newspaper with painters tape onto any exposed brick, the glass inserts and the surrounding floors.

My only regret was doing this project in February when I could not open doors and windows for ventilation! Being 7 months pregnant at the time I did wear a respirator but had to leave the house for hours until the strong odor faded. Never again! I remember sitting in my car in the driveway having nowhere to go but not wanting to breathe in the fumes. Those are memories I do not miss!

Now onto my favorite part of the project, the mantle! Because our existing mantle was made of cement we had to figure out how to attach a faux wood beam to the fireplace. My husband started by getting 1 inch pine boards from Home Depot.

My poor husband I think I made him show me every single piece before choosing which ones I wanted. I wanted the ones with the best pattern and grain and I made sure I found them. I have such a patient husband! He was able to work his magic using some wood glue, clamps and finish nails. I was thrilled with the result! I felt like I had a Pinterest worthy fireplace in my very own living room!

If you enjoyed this post I encourage you to read my living room before and after post here. Thank you for reading and Keep checking back for more updates on The Little Bit of Laurel Blog!