Before and After: Living Room Fireplace

We don’t have a fireplace anywhere else in our house, but that title sounded more elegant.

Our living room has come a long way since we moved in. We’ve made two significant contributions: the built-ins, and now the fireplace overhaul. It actually feels more spacious than when it was, um, naked. I mean bare. And this is important because our living room and the word “big” are not in cahoots.

So here’s the teaser, as taken from the bottom of our stairs…

WARNING: Pictures are misleading. Jason did not turn into Alex. But everything else is an accurate representation.

So as you can see, the old fireplace was old. Brass firebox, white brick…it wouldn’t stop any shows. It’s been on our list since the beginning and its time finally came. Of course, I do what I always do and head to Pinterest, show Jason what I want and then sit back and eat bon-bons til it’s finished. (Wouldn’t that be nice! My real job is to keep the boys out of the tools, paint and general construction – no small feat and we usually have to leave the house. Oh, and the cleanup that comes with saws and drills roaring away. Total mess.)

But the end result is always sooo worth it. Pinterest had lots of lovely fireplaces to choose from, I narrowed it down to the ones with TVs above the mantel and picked these as the father and mother.

Of course, no child is a perfect combination of their parents. I went with Benjamin Moore’s Gunmetal for the gray, slightly lighter than the father’s Peppercorn by Sherwin Williams. And we chose regular white marble tile vs. the herringbone (our picture is a little wonky, the tiles on the floor are the same white as around the backsplash, despite looking creamy/yellowy). And of course, there’s our dirty little secret.

The background info is that Jason built the cable box into the wall a long time ago and our TV is mounted so that we have not dealt with any stray wires. But the new question was, how to hide the cable box? Our remote is infrared and communicates through the wood, but we knew we had to be able to access it from time to time. As the design came together, Jason realized he could make the whole left vertical board slide in and out…