Fabulous Fireplace Redo!

Fabulous Fireplace Redo!

Before fireplace with golden oak and dated red brick.

Awhile back I got a call from one of my favorite clients asking me to redo her fireplace and built-ins. Our original discussion was to paint the built-ins and the brick. This would work...but I had another idea in mind. "What about changing the brick to look like stone?" I said. She was beyond intrigued to say the least. I then brought out a sample and we worked off that and many pictures for design and color.

After fireplace with painted built-ins and stone concrete overlay.

I then collaborated with Drywall Hubby on stone finish and he was more than happy to oblige. He created a concrete overlay finish that went directly over brick. As you can see the concrete overlay is pretty white.

I then covered fireplace with plastic and painted all the built-ins with General Finishes custom tinted to Fog Mist. Sometimes you have to make decisions when you have multiple finishes which one to apply first, so I decided the best choice was concrete finish, built-ins, and then coloring of concrete. This way if the concrete got on repainted wood...not a big deal...and if paint got on unfinished concrete...not a big deal there either...And I felt fairly confident I could keep concrete tint off of painted wood without making a mess since I was applying that by hand. Oh man! Am I tired after all that thinking!

I then used concrete pigment powders to stain concrete. Every stone was done by hand with multiple pigments to create a very natural look. When all done it was sealed with a traditional concrete sealer.

Here's a picture of it all done but shelves still have to go back and hardware put on cabinets. My client replaced the carpet and put in hardwood floors. I always recommend cutting back carpet prior to painting when this is the case. Many times the carpet nap is higher than what the floor would be and when carpet is removed, you have a line of unfinished wood that will ultimately need touched up. So why not just take care of it in the beginning...

Isn't that the best transformation you have ever seen! I totally loved doing this project!

Original article and pictures take staceysfauxlife-stacey.blogspot.com site