Fireplace Update

We've been in our new home a little over 4 months. In that span of time we've remodeled the kitchen, built in the basement, painted both of the kids rooms, created a workshop in the unfinished portion of the basement, and we've been decorating filling the space little by little. There's not a room in this house that doesn't need painting, so I've been hesitant to fill my walls the way that I want them since I'll just have to pull everything again before I paint. 

The next room on my list is the family room. This room is very dark because we have a lot of large oak trees in our front yard along with a big front porch, so there isn't a lot of natural light that comes in. I plan on going with a light gray, but before I tackle the walls, the trim HAS to be repainted. We are fortunate enough to have a big fireplace but it's ugly. It's brownish-orange and it just sucks what little light we have right out of the room. The house was built in the early 90's, so it's outdated and needed a serious (but cheap) update. If I had an endless budget I would rip it out and redo it completely, but my budget was $0 so that wasn't an option. Instead I tracked down my trusty quart of white latex paint and went to town. 

I taped everything off and then I just used an angled paintbrush to apply. I used two coats and laid it on pretty thick on the mortar because it was really porous and I was trying to fill the holes and cracks.

Here is the living room on the day that we moved in.

And here is a close up of the finished project. I still need to style the hearth and add our screen, but I LOVE how it turned out. It's so clean and crisp and instantly brightened the room, even with the brown walls.

Once we paint the trim, patio door and walls I'll do a full living room tour. I'm loving how it's turning out. It's a rectangular room, so we've managed to have a nice sized living space and I have a big desk in front of our double windows. That way I can spend time with the family while I'm getting some work done. Stay tuned!