revealing our renovated fireplace

January brings with it cold dark evenings that drive people indoors to enjoy the cozy warmth found therein. It is on evenings like these that I love turning on the fireplace and cozying up with a book and mug of tea, enjoying a slightly slower pace of life. This year, I am especially excited as the fireplace is finally refinished! We have been slowly working bit by bit on this project when we needed a break on others or when rain halted our work outside.

So where did we start from? The fireplace had an original mantle and tile when we first bought the house. While I love most of the woodwork in the house, this was one I just couldn’t get on board with. The colors on the tile looked faded and didn’t match the feel we wanted. The upper section of the mantle felt dated and overpowering in the small room. At the same time, there were elements in the fireplace that I wanted to preserve. The lower section of the mantle was solid and the perfect size. The metal trim around the gas insert likewise was beautiful and worth saving.

Knowing what elements we wanted to keep, we developed a picture of roughly what we wanted. First, we wanted the fireplace to catch the eye, contrasting with the walls and trim in the room. To achieve this, we opted for a monochromatic dark color. We also wanted to give a touch of modern which we decided to do through small tweaks to the mantle and our tile choice.

The first stage of the project was, of course, demo. We removed the mantle, carefully saving the lower portion, and removed the cover from the gas insert. Then we went to work on the tile removal. It became quickly evident that we were going to have to make a decision on how to handle the gas insert- we either were going to have to disconnect it or elevate it so we could work around it. Not wanting to have to disconnect the gas line…elevation was our solution.

With the tile removed, we prepared for the new tile to go on. Since we were putting a smaller mosaic tile on, we realized that we needed more support on the inner edge of the tile as on the old fireplace the opening with the tile was too large for the insert. We especially needed this support as we were working with small mosaic tiles. We also needed a better, smoother surface to work with. So we applied a thin layer of mortar to give a flatter surface for tile application.

This was our first tile application and was an adventure! While there were a few challenges ( like tiling under the gas insert) we persevered!

Once the tile was in place, we scraped the rust off the metal trim and repainted it with a heat-resistant spray paint.

We updated the mantle, changing the trim on the front for a simpler design and filling in the back from where the lower half connected to the top. Finally with a fresh coat of paint, the mantle was ready to go back in place.

Re-assembly had its challenges as well- positioning the gas insert back in place in a way that was level and centered took a lot of finessing. We even ended up creating a support for the front of the insert to make sure it remained secure.

All the challenges were worth it. And now for the enjoyment. A couple of candles on top of the mantle, a warm glow from the fire, a mug of tea, and a good book. The perfect evening.