When we moved into our house 7 years ago it was a blank canvas. Everything in it was basic builder grade white and beige. We are not a vanilla family. Our first order of business was to start bringing some color and texture into our home. Our fireplace is a perfect example. Many people settle for life around a cold plain white fireplace because they don't know what to do with it. As you can see from the picture our fireplace had the added bonus of the groovy brass inlays. We came up with a simple solution that anyone could do as a weekend project. The first thing we did was strip the groovy brass inlays. They peeled right off. Next, we cleaned the surface with a non toxic cleaner. Then, we painted the insert black to cover the areas that had the brass. After that we glued on some decorative scrolls using constuction adhesive. Then we used a good quality non toxic primer on the surfaces to be painted including the tile on the floor. Since we didn't know how to tile, we went in search of inexpensive alternatives.
What we came up with were tin tiles from
http://www.americantinceilings.com/ We cut them to size using tin snips and used construction adhesive and glued them right on top of the white tiles. Next we painted the fireplace a solid base color. We then took a second darker color and dry brushed some color and wiped it off until we got just the right color. We added a glaze to the tin tiles to make them look aged. Lastly, we painted the floor tiles a terra cotta color to match the kitchen tile, let it dry and finished with a good quality top coat. The end result WE warmed up the fireplace instead of vice versa. All for under $150. For more design inspiration check out the gallery and portfolio pages of our website at
http://www.fauxdaddydesigns.com/
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