Budget Friendly Modern Farmhouse Fireplace Makeover
For reasons, now unknown(ha!), I have put off sprucing up our fireplace for a little over three years. The project just seemed so daunting. I wasn’t sure what to do and I was fearful of messing up such a huge focal point in our home.
I wasn’t planning on tackling the fireplace this summer or even this week. But through the natural course of events one thing led to another and I found myself doing our most anticipated design project since moving into PINEdaisyHOUSE.
Here is what our fireplace looked like before. Late 1970s wood paneling (not.my.jam), drab, and over all just dated. The space on the right is a built in bookshelf.
Since day one of living here, we knew something would have to be done. I mean what’s a fireplace with no mantel?! The big dream is to Colorado river rock the whole thing. But with three fireplaces (what a sweet blessing) we want to do all of them at once and that is not a budget priority right now. So I processed a ton with a few folks who love my quirky, gotta talk and talk til the cows come home, nature. They know me, my sense of style, and appreciated what I was trying to achieve. The vision came together pretty easily and this project took about a day and a half. The icing on the cake though, it cost less than $100!
Get it right!
I wanted to be really, really, REALLY sure it was right in the end. No mess ups here. My sweet Mr. PINEdaisyHOUSE is away on business this week and I really didn’t want him to come home to a messed up project or something half-finished. Also, it’s super important to me that whatever updates we do compliment the style of our modern cabin without being:
1)Forced- I genuinely hope the finished product looks like it was part of a natural design progression. Not a, I-can’t-stand-the-wood-paneling-for-one-more-day kinda thing.
2)Shabby Chic – Love this style of design but it can read a little feminine and doesn’t fit our vibe.
3)Too Rustic or too modern – I really wanted to strike a nice balance. We have some big accent pieces in the house that are distressed and rustic. They are focal points to the room and I wanted the fireplace to really tie everything together, not just be one more distressed piece. My style is modern farmhouse/contemporary rustic so for me less is always more.
The Fireplace Makeover Process
If you follow me on Instagram (you should by the way) you know I did some paint samples with spare wood to make sure the color we picked was just right.
Once I chose the color and had the vision in my head, we headed to Lowes. I was on the hunt for a railroad tie-ish sized piece of pre-treated wood the same color as the other woodwork in the house. I know I could have gone to a lumber yard but I was on a mission and knew Lowes most likely had the right piece.
We decided on a gnarly 4 X 6 X 8 piece of pre-treated pine. Sadly, Lowes doesn’t cut wood that large. BOOOOO!!!!!! So the kids and I just threw on the safety gloves, and goggles and cut it ourselves to the proper length, we wanted a 6 foot long mantel.
Most of you know by now, my big guy is going on 14 and is a craftsman in the making. He played a major role in the project and I’m grateful for his natural love of creating, building and working with his hands. It was definitely a group effort because my sweet 10-year-old mini me is all about quality control and made sure we were careful, and everything was level. It’s likely I’ll need to stain the wood eventually, I have a feeling it will lighten with time, but for now it’s a PERFECT match to the trim in the house.
After 3 hours, some homemade pizza, and a Kelly Clarkson jam sesh, the painting was done. It took about 1/2 a gallon of paint, and for this project I was lucky enough to have it on hand. I used Cobblestone by Martha Stewart in eggshell. It’s a great neutral gray. Also, I only painted the back wall of the built-in shelf. In our modern cabin all the windows are trimmed out in a nice warm medium brown. I kept the shelves themselves brown to help tie all the trim and cabinetry elements together. This method really brightens up the entire built-in, while still keeping it grounded.
Once the fireplace unit was painted and the wood cut, it was time to hang the hardware for the beam (which would be the mantel). We made four shelf brackets out of black piping from Lowes. Each bracket took three pieces and with our need to build four, this part was the bulk of the project cost. Each bracket cost around $15(eek!). You can find the inspiration here. I could have probably skimped and only done two brackets or made them out of another material, but I needed something sturdy and, as I said earlier, was in “get er done” mode. Plus we’ve got some of this pipe shelving in other parts of the house so it was an easy tie in. This was a project worth doing right. I think the pipe brackets add just the right touch of industrial, and rustic style to the fireplace.
After a little fire-marshal-mantel-hanging research, very slowly, the kids and I hung each bracket. We leveled everything three times just to be sure. And I’m proud to say there are only two extra holes in the entire project!!! Now it was time to place the 6 inch deep mantel on top!! Voila, my contemporary rustic fireplace has come to life!
The styling and big reveal
Once the mantel was up, I did a few little paint touch ups and started to style everything. For the built-in I kept everything really practical with lots of white elements to keep it bright and airy. The fireplace is in our kitchen nook so the shelf acts as pretty kitchen storage for us too! Above the new mantel (yippee!!!) I hung my gather sign and kept things really simple with a white pitcher that holds forsythia.
I adore the outcome. I’m not sure why it took me so long?! Perhaps it’s just that after years of renting I needed to find my “go for it” decorator “sea” legs. Thanks for hanging in there with me through the process, here and on Instagram. I love spending time thoughtfully and purposefully designing and decorating my home to be a place of rest and peace. It’s not by accident that I get to call these three people mine, and one way I love them fully is by creating a beautiful place for them to live and grow.
Edi
