SNS #49 brings you - fireplaces

Intro

Welcome to Saturday Nite Special #49!

If you're new here, join in! There are three categories to link to. Home Decor as well as Crafts, Sewing, Recipes, plus the 3rd themed link. Check below for this weekend's theme.

Party starts Fri night and ends Sunday 11pm pacific, so you have all weekend to join!

I LOVE to highlight inspiring posts during the event on the sidebar, so make sure you check in several times over the weekend. You may be next. :)

~ This weekend's themed link ~

fireplaces

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The elegant and unusual touch of metal kind. Aren't they pretty?

 

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 The Jetson suspended kind. Hmmm...

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The 'no toddlers allowed clean that glass' kind. Not the most practical.

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The swirly whirly creative kind. Interesting, but don't ever run and fall on this one.

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 The open wallet kind. (or whatever)

No matter what kind of fireplace lights your own fire, it's my realistic guess that many of you are still housing the dated brick variety.

Much like this. Hold your hand up if you have one of these. So, what can you do with them to update the look?

Paint the brick? Box them over with wood? Tile over top?

The Funky Junk floor to ceiling revamped rock kind. (link HERE)

Dan (HERE) and crew covered the existing brick with cultured stone and created a one of a kind cozy focal point, setting the stage for my entire upstairs.

(Imagination Corporation's website is HERE)

The base was covered with fibreglass reinforced concrete, hand carved and stained by Phoenix to create visual weight on the hearth.

(Stonetree Studios' website is HERE)

Over sized metal corbels were fabricated to cover over the existing brick variety.

 The massive whimsical mantle was hand carved and routered out of high density HDU board and layers of paint and glaze (by Bec and myself) were added until the board resembled the perfect tone for wood.

Resulting in an old world, funky, and unique blend of everything I love. Which makes an incredible focal point for the entire upstairs.

I LOVE my fireplace!

So, let's talk fireplaces! Do you love/hate yours? What would you LIKE to do to it? Got any tips on what worked/didn't work for others to read up on? Got a fav link (share in comments!) from elsewhere of a redo you love?


 Let's see what YOU have in this weekend's 3rd themed linkup!

 The lucky winner of the Scentsy giveaway is now posted in The Sponsor Store! 
Click HERE to see if it's you!

~ SNS blah blah linkup rules ~

1. Please link up your intended post, NOT your blog homepage url. (post, then click the title of your post, cut and paste that url)

2. Please put a link in your post that leads back to the party so others can see what's up! (buttons are in the navigation bar along the top)

 3. This party is geared for DIY type projects we can all attempt to make ourselves. Items for sale may be linked up IF your entry is posted on your blog and in tutorial style.

4. For Home Decor and Crafts, Sewing, Cooking, please link projects up that are new to SNS and within 1 month old. The 3rd weekly themed link may have older posts and not brand new to SNS.

If you can't decide which category to enter yours in, please just pick ONE and go with it. It's all good!

Creating an old world stone fireplace (without massive destruction.)

You might say my fireplace is rather unique.

Once upon a time, the fireplace was your typical dated brick variety with a teeny weeny little mantel. When my home underwent major renovations,

my buddy Dan

asked me what plans I had for the fireplace. I cringed, wishing I HAD plans. He jumped in and offered to help create something I could feel really proud of. That was a very good day. :) So together, we came up with some designs and a plan of action.

First, the mantel was created out of high density foam board that was hand carved, hand tooled as well as run on a CNC router to create the whimsical woodgrain. It is HUGE and very heavy.

After the carving of the mantle, came the many layers of paint and glazes to recreate deep rich woodsy tones.

The old mantel comes down...

... and the new one is installed. Also added at this time were metal corbels hiding the original brick ones, as well as a decorative metal insert.

A framework was created in order to carry the fireplace right up to the ceiling. Note the curvy sides, for an old world appearance.

The upper framework is attached.

Next, a skim coat of cement (and other things) covered the existing brick to create the base for the rock work.

Buddy Dan and the overly talented crew carefully trimmed and placed cultured stone on the framework and existing brick interface.

Here Phoenix is applying an acid stain to his hand carved fiberglass reinforced concrete base. A solid looking rock was hand sculpted over top of the brick rather than using cultured stone, in order to create more visual weight to the base, as well as a comfier place to sit.

The final result? Old world charm that demands your full attention when you walk upstairs. I've always loved fireplaces that touched the ceiling. I love how they move your eye up wards, creating a much grander presence. 

Here's a closeup of the massive metal corbels that were created to cover over top of the existing brick ones. And their massiveness also brought the over sized hand carved mantel into proper scale too. Isn't this an amazing touch? One can paint the metal or even apply acid to rust it, however I fell in love with it just the way it was. (which ties in with my kitchen island).

Update: The metal corbels were completely created out of heavy gauge metal, handcut by Dan. The joins were welded and the rivet was created out of a steel ball cut in half. The metal is naturally black until you grind it, bringing up the steel tones. One can chose to continue to grind for an all metal look or leave it as is for a distressed finish. I chose the latter. :)

The mantel wears many layers of paint and glaze, creating rich wood tones that capture every nook and cranny of the added texture from all the tooling.

I am a lover of all things natural and rustic, so when I found this mirror for next to nothing with it's unique but not over the top shapes, that was it! And sits there today.

 

Christmas mantel 2009

The mantel is so massive, you really have to pile the stuff on to create the right balance. Here's some kooky fun I've had over time. The glow of light is simply from white mini lights, creating an amazing ambiance in the evenings. Safer than candles too!

This metal plate was created to visually remove  the plain square hole. I had actually desired the rock to capture the soft curves of the top, however this plate was a great fix. It's held in place with pins that can simply be removed if one wishes to change to a gas insert at a later date.

What cool thing have you done to change your fireplace look? Is there something you want to do to yours? Feel free to leave your link in the comments if you have pictures. I'd love to see. :)

~ This post has been updated: the original was featured on ~

 

Revamping an old fireplace

This story was proudly featured on one of the best home decor blogs on the web!

Visit Layla at

http://theletteredcottage.blogspot.com/2009/03/fireplace-re-do.html

and make sure you browse around. Your eyes will thank you. Thanks Layla!

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So, the fireplace... how many of you have been wanting to redecorate your living rooms, only to have to continue to stare at your 20 year old plus fireplace? What do you DO with that old thing? Some paint it. Others tile over it.

First, think of the look that you want. I personally love an old world looking appearance. And I knew the brick or painting wasn't something I wanted to stay put.

Here's what I started with. Your typical brick. The previous owners at least changed out the mantle to make it appear abit beefier, so kudos for that! But it still whispered to me.


The first step was to figure out what kind of look I desired. I sketched a rock fireplace that went from floor to ceiling with abit of tapering in from the mantle up and desired a heavier woodsy mantle. Working with my friend/part of the team Dan, a massive mantle was also created out of precision board. We went for a slightly whimsical feel. A wire brush on a drill, hand carving and a router were all used to create this guy.

After the carving of the mantle, came painting/glazing the piece. This is yours truly working on those layers of paint to achieve a wood effect.


Next, the old mantle was removed and the measuring process has begun. The new mantle is sitting on the hearth.


With the mantle in place, some heavy metal brackets were created to cover the brick like brackets. I personally love old rustic metal so this flavour was bent to my shape for certain. The massive brackets quickly brought the scale of the mantle right down to the perfect proportion.

I also disliked the square opening, so a metal insert was designed to curve the opening, but also was made removable so if I desired to go to gas at a later date, I still could. Looks cooler already!




Next the framework was created so the rock could be carried up all the way to the ceiling. Cultured stone was the chosen product for this go around. (there are also other unique ways to go about this... one is fiberglass reinforced hand carved cement, but I'll save that for another post) The stone was placed right over top of the existing brick and on the new framework above the mantel.

Here's an example of the concrete I just spoke of. The base was hand carved with the concrete to achieve the look of one solid rock, rather than many pieces of stone put together. The result puts more weight to the fireplace and is easier to sit on as well. Here the stone is being treated to achieve the same colour results as the rest of the rock.

My apologies for this pic which is on the darker side, but this is the end result, sans the grouting that needs to still be implemented. What was once a cute little brick fireplace became this majestic total room feature that gave the living area not only a magnificent feature to gaze at, but a much homier old world appearance as well. And now the real fun could start!


The mantle gets changed out frequently. Whenever I bring home a new find, I try it on the mantle. Decorating to scale is pretty key with all displays of course, however with this mantle being so chunky, I'm thrilled to report I'm able to really load the bulk on for alot of fun effects!

Don't think for a minute you're stuck with your outdated fireplace. You have alot of creative options! And we are also offering a fireplace revamp as part of the services here too!

Time to get cozy with a nice fire... ahhh, much better!