Fireplace overhaul: finished!

The fireplace project is finished! It was a relatively easy process, we just kept dragging it out for 11 months. I wish we could have finished it soon after we started, but none of that matters now.

Let's look at the real before, January 2009:

The shelves were used as an entertainment center by the previous residents, holding dvd players and such.

R took the shelves out and I added candles, but we still had the unsightly wood on the inside to deal with.

And the finished product (minus something on the inside):


Side by side:
We painted the inside Thick Chocolate by Behr. It has a bit of a purple undertone that can be seen in certain lights, but I'm ok with it. It adds a little bit of quirkiness, and doesn't every need some of that?

We also chose to only paint that one wall as an accent wall. I may decide to paint the rest of it later, but with our Thanksgiving deadline, I decided to see how I felt about this wall first. I'm really pleased with the color. It's Ralph Lauren Parchment, color-matched in Behr.

It's really hard to capture a true representation of the color in a photograph, but this shows the wall as a whole and the contrast. Contrast is a funny word to use here, because there's not a big difference, but I've always been afraid to use color. Our house has some interesting carpet and countertop colors that you have to work around, so I do what I can.

Overall, I'm very pleased with our small weekend project.