1970's Brick Fireplace DIY Makeover
$400.00
Medium
Time to upgrade my 1970's brick fireplace. I knew that I wanted to tile over the existing brick and create an accent wall since the fireplace with a window on each side takes up the entire wall on one end of the room.
Original brick
I found some rather pricey travertine tile in the colors I wanted to use and started laying out the design on the floor. I used a combination of porcelain tile for the hearth in a color that matched the existing floor in the room and a strip of accent tile of natural stone and glass to keep the overall cost down.
Covered the existing structure using thin-set. Wanted to keep the architectural design of the opening since it is unique but couldn't decide how to cover with the travertine since the brick size, spacing, and arch created some challenges. Decided to finish the facing first and then explore options for the opening and mantle.
Started with painting the brick at the opening white and using the original rough cut wood mantle to see if that might be the answer. I didn't like the opening white since the detail strip needed to stand-put more so I started experiment with sponge painting the bricks to look like the travertine. I used all surface paint from the craft store.
I liked the results so I kept going!
I forgot to add that I painted the mortar which was a dark grey a cream color to better blend with the hearth tile color.
I gave the mantle a new coat of brown paint and stained trim for the windows to compliment the mantle and painted the wall with Behr "Brown Teepee."
Flat screen to be hung this weekend and sconces comi9ng soon! I'll post when complete!
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2 of 4 comments
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Wow, it looks stunning! Can't wait to see it with sconces - sounds dreamy.
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You really made most of the tonal variations in the stone. Nice job.
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