The stockings were hung by the chimney with (extreme!) care, in hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there. We did find our Christmas decorations, but not many of them fit where they did in the old house. We had a very red and green mantle at our old place, with green garland and silver accents. More of a traditional feel. When trying to decorate this fireplace, I quickly found out our new home had a tiny mantle. Not much fit. We could get our stocking holders safely hanging, but there was no way garland would fit. In addition to being narrow, it is also short in length. Since we'll have a completely different fireplace in a few weeks I didn't want to shell out for new decorations. Instead I re-purposed some old tinsel garland and hot glued left-over ornaments on a cone-shaped foam mold to make a tree. You can also find "Red" (our elf) hiding in the wreath today. Not the fanciest mantle, but festive. I think it goes well with our cardboard hearth and chipped tile. ;)
D removed most of the tile on the hearth to make room for the gas line for the fireplace conversion a few months ago. The tile was attached with liquid nails and wasn't easy to budge. He chipped away a bit and ultimately used a saw to completely detach the hearth piece. He'll need to remove the drywall to get the rest of the tile off the wall. Since we have a big 5th birthday coming up, we'll wait until after the party to tackle the rest.
We have our faux-stone on order. We decided to go with Boulder Creek Stone in the "Morgan" color. In print and online it shows up orange/pink, but it's actually more brown and gray. It's marketed as a DIY friendly install... we hope that's correct. Another benefit of the Boulder Creek product is that it has matching hearthstones which we were unable to find with the faux-stone at Lowe's or Home Depot. Plus, I preferred more of the "block" look versus the flatter "slate" look. Just a style preference.
What is currently a plain wall with a fireplace will become the focal point of the main living area. We have white cabinets for each side of the fireplace just waiting to be installed. We'll put in white shelving to give it a full "built in" look. The TV will get mounted on the wall with a swivel arm and the stand will move to the basement. If D can manage it, lights will be installed over the fireplace. That ceiling fan will be replaced with a more attractive model with brighter lights.
A few inspiration photos for the stones and mantle. I love the chunky mantles in these photos. We won't go to the ceiling with the stone in our home. We are also keeping the existing fireplace glass doors but will paint the brass to give it a solid look. Our TV will go to the right of the fireplace on one of the shelves (vs mounted over the fireplace) because it makes more sense for our room layout.
A big impact project coming up for 2015.
Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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| Out with the old, in with the new for 2015! |
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