Fireplace Makeover – An Easy Update with Paint

 

Here’s a look at our living room in our open-concept main floor when we first moved in. I was excited to have a fireplace again but this colour wasn’t right for me.

Originally I thought I’d paint everything white, including a wash on the tiles but then changed my mind and I’m glad I went with black instead. At the time it felt like a huge risk but it’s just paint and I was happy with the dramatic results.

Here’s the progress…

Before:  Beige trim and blue walls.

After: Now the fireplace is a feature and I the room has a more modern feel.

Before: The yellow/beige colour didn’t have the same impact with objects displayed.

After: The tiles now look natural and still go with the house.

Now with the black paint, the spotlight at night and natural light during the day create a great space to make seasonal displays.

The fireplace was the first area I started painting, even before the kitchen cabinet makeover I did in December.

This is a wider view of the room before I painted the kitchen cabinets. Once you start changing one area it can start to make everything else look incohesive.

This was not my first time painting a fireplace. 7 years ago we had just moved into our first home near Montreal and this was my first project. The photo will link to the blog post showing how I used chalk paint on the wooden mantel. This is the same couch that has travelled with us from Montreal – Toronto and now Kelowna.

Instead of dreaming of a renovation someday, is there a simple paint fix that could make a big change today?

Advertisement

How to make a Fresh Holiday Wreath

Every year, my friend and neighbour Kate and I have a tradition of making wreaths together. We call it our own workshop where we have coffee while making some holiday decor.

This year we added juniper berries and dried eucalyptus (from the wreath I made last year) to our base of blue spruce from the tree in our front yard.

Here are some photos from the process.

This is the tree that gives so much to us!

Materials Ready

Creating little bundles with your greens in the secret to getting a cohesive look.

Layer the bundles of green over one another as you go around the wreath form, wrapping with paddle wire.

In a couple of months when the season is over, save the paddle wire to use again next year after you pull out the old greens.

Here it is at the front door — where it stayed for a couple of weeks until I had an idea that involved making a second one and bringing them both inside. More photos of that to come later but in the meantime, there is a sneak peek in my Instagram feed.

 

More Fresh Wreath Tutorials:

Boxwood Wreath DIY

 

Eucalyptus Wreath DIY

Fresh Eucalyptus Wreath DIY

 

Every holiday season I love to make wreathes, each time trying something new. This was my first attempt at making one out of only Eucalyptus.

For the wreath form I used a smaller 10 ” wire frame and 3 bunches of Seeded Eucalyptus from the grocery store.

It took me a few days until I started making the wreath and in that time some of the leaves had started to dry out even though I had kept the stems in water. I started with the dried pieces and made small bundles in the same way that I made the boxwood wreath last year.

These leaves worked the best. When there were so many seeded pieces it was difficult to work with.

Here is the wreath one week later, it dried out within 2 days of making it. Hopefully it will last the whole winter and won’t need to be constantly cleaned up like cedar.

Update:

This post has been getting a lot of traffic which makes me think that people would like to see more examples of Eucalyptus wreaths so I’ve added a new post with others I’ve made.

Baby Blue Wreaths – 2019