Faux Fireplace-Guest Post from Emerald Cove

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Faux Fireplace-Guest Post from Emerald Cove

Hello everyone!

My name is Michelle and I am coming over from Emerald Cove.

I am so excited to be blog swapping today with Kindra, she is one of the sweetest bloggy friends and so talented!

I am a full time mom of a 5 year-old and an almost 13 year-old and I also work part time at an animal hospital.

I enjoy painting and redecorating, although lately I think a bit too much but that's ok because my wonderful hubby puts up with it and me! :)

I am so inspired by the sea and love everything coastal. I am in the process of taking that love and turning our home into a cottage that makes me feel like I am at the beach all the time!

My latest redo was in our bedroom.

We built a faux fireplace/mantel, or frantel as I have heard it called, and I am happy as a clam about how it turned out!

It feels like a whole new room and even though I would have loved a real fireplace, budget would not allow.

But,

that is ok because we spent a whopping $30.00 on it!!

I know right!!

Ok, ok, I will stop talking and start showing! :)

So without further ado....my faux fireplace!!

This is how the wall between the windows started out.

We ripped out the the vertical boards of the board and batten.

(Oops!!)

We hung the shelf that used to be above the bed after I painted it white.

(if you want to see what it looked like before click here)

We then started framing in the sides of the faux fireplace.

After the sides were in, I purchased two brackets to hold the "hearth".

Hubby surprised me and added some trim around the sides!

Nice!! :)

I also patched up the huge hole in the drywall as well as the screw and nails holes.

I should note that we screwed in the shelf because it is very heavy!

We then used the nail gun (love me my power tools) for all the other pieces.

I then painted the whole thing white and added two strips of wood to add a pop of color.

I used the Shoreline Mist and the color that I used on my daughters bed, which for the life of me I can't think of.

I then sanded it up a bit and dry brushed it with the gray that I had left over to give it that aged look.

Then I "beached" it up by adding some things that I had around the house including driftwood, shells, fake coral, candles.

It felt so good to open the windows, even though it was only about 38 degrees, and feel the sun come in.

Even Bosco enjoyed his little bit of fresh air!

The photo in the frame is from my visit to Carmel California, which I would love to go back to someday, and the picture in the flower frog is one of my favorites of my hubby, my daughter and myself walking down the beach.

I have changed some things up a bit on the mantel and I will show you that along with the whole bedroom reveal this coming week! :)

I am so happy with the results of this and even happier that it didn't cost much of anything. We just used the things that we had and the only things we purchased were a few pieces of wood to frame out the faux fireplace.

As you can see the color on the walls have changed as well. I have painted them and changed things up a bit but have not posted about the entire room yet.

Thank you so much Kindra for swapping with me today, I love visiting you and always feel inspired!