With a Little Paint...

Look at what a difference can be made. 

When we moved into our tiny, and I mean TINY, rancher 9 years ago our fireplace had a wobbly shelf and made of brick.  You couldn't put anything on the shelf for the fear of it collapsing.  The doors of the fireplace (that has never been lit in this warm weather climate) were brassy, clunky, and had some contraption coming out the side.  

BEFORE

This past year we had our living room, hallway and kitchen area painted.  We decided to paint the fireplace. Gone with the red brick. Gone with the clunky glass doors. Add a black screen to match new rubbed bronze hardware in the house. Add new mantle that can hold pictures and candles, without killing someone.  The clock had always been there, but was down for the "BEFORE" photo. We also changed the ceiling fan too.  

AFTER

An accident happened when painting the fireplace and I actually like it. Our ceilings are a cream color...thinking...Western Accoustic! All trim is White Linen with our walls a creamy yellow.  The fireplace was painted Western Accoustic and so was the mantle. However, when the mantle needed another coat White Linen was used. Very subtle difference, but I like it! We didn't add any fancy scrollwork to the mantle, because, well...we aren't fancy people.  I felt like it had to reflect us.  As much as I LOVE looking at other people's home, I have to remember to make our house a home, it has to reflect our personalities.

For now the fireplace mantle holds B&W B.R." photos (Before Rodger) and candles.  I kept to a B&W look, because there is so much color in that small sitting area. Oh, you may not be able to see in the before picture, our living room is rectangular. The TV is mounted to the wall on the other side of the room.  We made the area into a sitting area. We have our chair and half and leather chair over there. To the right of the fireplace is my Scrapbook Armoire from yesterday. I did add some albums on the hearth so the children can easily reach and look at them.  Don't worry about Rodger though...he has a gallery of 20x20 photos with his siblings lining our hallway. I can share those one day, if you're interested.

Thanks for looking and be sure to stop by The Shabby Chic Cottage to see other transformations!!!