Just look at this beauty...
Lopsided mantle, smoke-stained brick and gorgeous brass front...It was in desperate need of a little love. We figured that now was a great time to love on it a bit, since soon we will want to be curled up in front of a blazing fire...but not starting at the above picture. So, it quickly became our first project. (Remember, we've lived in this house exactly...2 weeks...I think.)
Mark started by first removing an outlet and a phone jack that was on the side of the mantle. No idea why the previous owners put them there...but they did...so we removed them. I was given the fun job of cleaning the ash out of the firebox. Once all that prep type stuff was taken care of, we got into the destruction phase which is exciting and really dirty.
We first removed all the wood around the brick, including the mantel, since we decided to replace everything. Mark then inspected the chimney and found some cracks that needed to be filled in the firebox (which will happen a little later).
After all the wood was removed, it was time to do something about that 30 year old terracotta tile. We carefully removed the glass doors (they just popped off!) and it was ready to go. Mark first tried hitting the tile with a hammer. It wasn't doing a lot of damage so he decided to take it up a notch...and use the mighty sledgehammer. It worked (see below) and it is a miracle that he did not sledgehammer a hole through our entire floor!! A word of advice: when you are sledgehammering tile, wear safety glasses! Sparks were flying, chunks of tile were flying in all directions (including at our windows, Cliff, and my head)...it was pretty hazardous..so be careful!
Oh, did I forget to mention that sledgehammering anything inside a house is messy? Well, it is! Anyway, once that mess was cleaned up I got to start my part of the project - painting the brick! To prepare the brick for paint, I scrubbed it up really good with hot sudsy water. I used a sponge (the kind with the rough side) and steel wool. It pretty much tore through both, but it got the job done because it looked much cleaner when it dried. Once it was dry, I applied 2 coats of Kilz oil-based interior primer, which said on the can "for brick", so I knew I was using the right stuff.
I think I look a lot like Vanna White here. Cliff, meanwhile, is doing some of his own firebox inspections. Once the second coat dried, I applied two coats of the paint we choose, Glidden's Stone White. It's pretty much white, but with barely a hint of grey.
As soon as the paint dried, Mark began laying out the slate we picked out to be the new hearth floor (from Mark's uncle's store Portland Direct Tile and Marble). It is called "Indian Autumn" and it has blues, greys, and taupes - it's very pretty.
Once we got that all planned out, he began to set it with thin set. We noticed that when we weren't looking, Cliff left his mark on the thin set. Sneaky goof.
It didn't take long to set 10 pieces of slate. Once that was in, it really began to look a lot different (well, the paint kind of helped too)! (We spray painted the log holders which are those two things with big rings on the front inside of the firebox...we spray painted the doors (not the glass) the same flat black.)
Then we grouted the slate with some grey color...natural grey or winter grey. I can't remember. It goes really well with the slate.You can kind of see on each side of the hearth an unfinished gap...we are going to fill that in with the same wood from the floor, but since we haven't torn any up, we have nothing to fill it with yet, so for now those will be unfinished gaps. Oh, and all the white splotches in the firebox are crack patches. Just thought you'd like to know...
So, dismantling, painting, and slate done. What's left? The new mantel, of course! We decided to have a very simple mantel, much like what was already there before, so after purchasing some wood (good 'ol hemlock), Mark got to work (not that he wasn't working before...).
And before we knew it...
It was pretty much done! Oh! And look how pretty our freshly painted doors look! After filling all the nail holes with wood filler and then sanding everything down, we were ready to stain. Which led to our next decision:
Dark Walnut or Ebony?
We chose...
Dark Walnut!! And we are very happy we did. It actually almost perfectly matches our end tables and sofa table. Plus, it looks a little rustic, which I like. We gave it two coats of stain and finished it off with two coats of clear satin polyurethane.
And with that, our first project came to an end. We think it looks much better than it did before. Here's a little side by side of the before and after (technically, after and before) for you.
One very small project down...400 more to go! But who's counting?!
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