#fireplacerefresh

Hiyeeee!

I know, I know, it’s been a while, but that’s only because of I’ve been in a hole the past three weeks home-owning my ass off.

And while everything hasn’t been kittens and rainbows, I REALLY don’t need to hear yet another sarcastic, “welcome to homeownership” from another person. Thanks a lot. That comment really helped me fix my moldy gasket on my washer – which, after calling the home warranty company, finding out it wasn’t covered, crying for approximately three minutes, deciding I could watch a YouTube video to fix it myself, couldn’t, hiring two separate handymen to come out and try their luck - was finally fixed. Now I can finally do the laundry. Praise the Lord.

In all seriousness though, it’s been a really good learning experience and post-washer trauma, I could finally get going on some of the projects that I’ve been dying to start! So here it is folks, my first DIY project to share with you!

Freshening a builder-grade fireplace

Here is the before/after!

So much better, right?!

The first step was to update the oak colored mantel and refresh it with a white paint. So I taped, sanded it a bit, primed twice, and painted it with a white semi-gloss paint.

The second step was removing the gold hardware and pulls. This was a little more difficult and required a drill.

It’s so funny because every time I am on Pinterest, and find a project I want to do, I immediately IM my husband to ask if we have some tool that I need to complete it. For the drill, the answer was “yes, but it isn’t all that great.” My thought was, doesn’t it just have one purpose? It either works, or it doesn’t? No? Maybe that is just my thinking, but it did the job here.

These pictures were really just for me so that I could remember how to put it back together later. (Note that I should have taken more pictures because that was the hardest and most frustrating part.)

I wiped all the hardware down with disinfecting wipes and then spray painted them with Rustoleum black spray paint.

While it dried, I headed to Home Depot to pick up some new pulls. Turns out I had to go twice because one size does NOT fit all. Don't laugh! This was my first project! And, as it turned out, there was only one 4-inch pull in the entire store. So, that made that decision very easy. They weren't black, but luckily, they would work. Word to the wise: plan ahead, measure, shop online.

Once the spray paint was dry, I tried to put it back together. Tried being the key word. But it was so difficult! I couldn’t get it back together! So, sadly, the fireplace sat half done for about a week until I could enlist my husband’s help. Then! Along came the long weekend, where we made a list of all the projects we wanted to complete! I slyly wrote down “put back together fireplace” in between “go to Costco” and “put up dog door” in hopes that he might tackle it. Well, my list idea worked, and after about an hour and a half – and a few swear words later – it was finished!

I felt really bad that he had to help on such a frustrating project, and promised to finish one of the next projects all by myself. Spoiler alert – that promise has yet to be kept. I guess it’s true what Brit said: Boys, sometimes a girl just needs one. ;)

So, even though it's 99 degrees here today, Boddington is dreaming of a white Christmas snuggled up by the fire.

We won't tell him that there's like a 0% chance of snow here.

Before:

After:

Thanks for stopping by! Let me know what you think in the comments section!