The Fireplace Is Finished! And yes, there are pics!

It's taken FORFREAKINEVER...but i can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  My poor man.  He has been to Lowes so many times over the last month that they offered him a job.  Just kidding.  On the job part.  


It's not that this project was overly problematic - it's more that we had several projects going on at once.  This is just one of them. And we actually have real jobs that pay us and want us to show up on Mondays and work until 5. So there was constant stopping and starting.  And little boys who have winter football and spring baseball that are overlapping.


Oh..and my parents.  They're still here.  

But...you want to see the goods, right?

Ok..here are some before shots.  But....because we don't have it together enough to take a decent before pic and the realtor pic of this fireplace was lost when my laptop crashed...i had to make do with a pic from christmas morning.  Yes, morning.  I know it's dark outside the windows. That's how we roll here - up and at 'em at 6am.  Yessirree bob. 

I know, this picture is really not a great before. Here is better closeup.  Also, make a note ladies that when you ask your husband to take a picture of something, anything, make sure he understands what the subject is.  In this case, it was not the TV as one would think.  It's of that absolutely stunning tile. 

 Here is the look i was going for....RMS inspiration...

 And now that you've waited almost as long reading thru this post as it did to do the darn fireplace...here is where we are now....windows trimmed out, fireplace mantle and surround built, new tile inset and hearth and bookshelf builtins.

As you can see, we still have some things to finish up (like the blue painters tape isn't really the look i was going for there)  but i really wanted to show off what Vance and my dad have done because it's so pretty.  There were some things that i wanted that weren't in the inspiration pic - and i think the men in my life pulled it off quite well. The room isn't big enough for free standing furniture pieces to house the electronics and i have absolutely nowhere to store books so i asked them to create a built in space beneath the windows and it came out great i think.  

Originally, i wanted to do the mosaic surround like in my inspiration pic, but my stepdaughter, being the design diva that she is, suggested i go with something more timeless and i think she was spot on.  Love the travertine inset and hearth.


The trim needs to painted - right now you're looking at only primer on everything. And we need to redo the orange peel on the sides of the fireplace where we had to replace the drywall after tearing off the tile.  But we are nearing the finish line and i'm so glad. 


Hope you like it!


Linking to Transformation Thursdays and Inspiration Fridays - go there to see more cool stuff :)