Fireplace Renovation, Finale.

We finished this a couple weeks ago, but I'm just now getting around to posting. Lots of stuff going on around here lately, including my mother moving in for a couple weeks since she's about to close on the contract to sell her house, and us ripping out nearly all the landscaping in the front yard to redo it (which I will get around to posting pictures of soon, hopefully). Oh and it's my last semester of undergrad. Yeah, sh!t's been insane.

Before. Not terrible, just kinda boring.

After trying to remove the paint. The orange tint is dried on Citristrip.

Down to the frame.

New MDF, before we decided to replace the tile also. Legs are 1.5 inches wider on each side.

Mantle #1. I hated it, the proportions were wrong. And it was ugly.

New 2" x 2" travertine mosaic tile.

Tile after grouting.

Using painters tape to decide if I wanted to do detail trim on the front.

Finished fireplace!

Ta-da! Sure it took 5 months instead of two weeks, but overall I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Midas Touch.

So, I primed Shiva, then gave him a coat of gold Rub N' Buff. I was really liking the matte pale grey of the primer. I'm kinda iffy on the gold. Maybe because it's not the uber shiny gold like polished brass. I've always been kind iffy on gold anyways.

Primed

Gold

He's currently chilling on the fireplace mantel. Fireplace is still not finished. Hubby has been procrastinating on the trim installation (3 months!), which is really the last step besides a final coat of paint. Even in its unfinished state, it's still pretty fab though.

Shiva.

My mother is selling her house. The sale is finalized on March 15th, and she's in the process of getting rid of all the extra stuff that won't fit in her new apartment. This is one of the things I took, a Shiva (or possibly Indian Buddha?) figurine that's been hanging outside for several years.

He's really dirty, although the paint hides it well. I want to give him a new coat of paint. Not quite sure what I want to paint him though. I'm not really sure where I'm going to keep him, which is probably the cause of my indecisiveness. I was thinking maybe white, but now I'm thinking gold? Hmm. Or some crazy neon green.

Also, we redid the cat shelves awhile back, but the kitty was reluctant to use them at first. So I bribed her with wheat grass. Now she hangs out there munching on grass and spying on the neighbors.

2012 Calendar

So, a few weeks ago I won a calendar from Aesthetic Outburst. Pretty exciting. This is only the second time I've ever won anything. And it's perfect because I wanted a calendar this size for the office but couldn't find anything I liked.

Even if I hadn't won it, it's basically exactly what I was looking for. The design is simple and geometric and lovely. Extra awesome? I can crop it down to a 4" x 6" to frame later as the months go by.

We also did a little rearranging since my husband got a new-to-him desktop computer, to make room for the monitor.

Featured...

So they picked my bedroom as the Pick of the Week on the IKEA Share Space blog!

I'm kind of excited :)

Still think I want to paint the dresser drawer fronts white though....