Wednesday, March 3, 2010

To paint or not to paint

Awhile back I finally crossed another thing off of my lengthy to-do list. I sit around my house and look intently at the walls, windows, closets, etc and try to decide how to change things up or make them look better. Lately, I was looking at my fireplace. As you can see from this pic, there has only been a brick "mantle" if you can even call it that.
I have been wanting to add a very simple mantle with the scrap wood in the garage. Here is the finished product.

I know it is just very simple and plain, but it helps the fireplace have a little more prescence in the room. Thank you to Mike, my wonderful hubby, for helping me with this project. Of course I got the usual response at first, the ever popular eye-roll, but I reminded him how much I loved him and flashed him a smile. Now, I need your opinion. Should I paint the fireplace brick white also??? We do build a lot of fires. Please leave me a comment with your vote :) Thanks!!

6 comments:

Three Against One said...

Love the mantel it looks great!! That wasn't up last time I was over was it, man I am so spacey sometimes.
As for whether or not to paint it, I just don't know. I think it would look great all white, but you build a lot of fires so I don't know how the white would hold up and now it has a great contrast between the white of the mantel and the brick on the fireplace. Sorry I know I am no help! :)

Anonymous said...

YES YES YES
PAINT PAINT PAINT!
I love a white fireplace and someday when I have a house with a fireplace, mine will be white! Go for it! Even if you don't, the new mantle looks awesome!
Becke'

KKB said...

Your mantle looks great! I vote paint!!

bigsis said...

How about some technique that distresses or mottles the color of the brick without totally going white?? (Talk about a non-commital comment, but seriously I don't think you will like the all-white look...but what do I really know?)
K

P.S. Great job Mike!!

Nomad said...

Wow it's amazing what a simple change like that can do. Looks much better with the mantle added on.

I vote leave the brick as it is. If you paint it white it will probably get dirty really fast and I think the natural brick looks good.

Dale said...

Hi--I found your blog while scrolling through "Next Blog" to see what came up after mine on Blogger. I think the mantel is a big improvement--nice job! I have beefed mine up with a Home Depot kit and I chose to paint the brick "Boston Brick." I think it looks sharper against the wall color. Mine used to be white, and it got dirty from the smoke. Here's my fireplace project if you want to do some light reading!

http://levelandplumb-dale.blogspot.com/2010/01/all-that-glitters.html

(IN)COURAGE -SO great...check it out!

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