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Thursday, June 30, 2011

Decorating Thursday

Last Thursday, we talked about the cheapest, easiest and most “bang for your buck” decorating project…painting. Painting has the highest impact and provides the WOW factor that we all strive for.
This week as part of a decorating a family room, we are going to take a stained, full wall brick fireplace and make it fresh, clean and beautiful.
You can see pictures of this and my other projects on my website at www.reutershomedesigns.com
If you look at my website you’ll notice in the before pictures how dirty and stained the fireplace was. I tried scrubbing it with several different cleansers with no luck. My only real alternative, other than getting into using acids, was to paint. I scrubbed it, primed it and painted it…two coats and yes, it was a lot of work getting in the grout lines but the results were well worth the effort.
 I cleaned out the fire pit and painted the inside (Even though I had no plans to use this fireplace to burn wood or gas, I used paint that is made to endure high heat temperatures in case I change my mind later). I then covered the bottom with natural stones and put a layer of colored glass stones and over them and around several candles. I tiled the hearth with black granite tiles to finish off the look.
It was very satisfying to stand back and look at the whole picture after completing the project. Don’t miss next Wednesday’s Trash to Treasure blog to see how I used wood from closet shelves to make the additional seating/storage on each side of the fireplace and next Decorating Thursday's blog will be about decorating a master suite with homemade draperies and bedding to acheive a luxury look on a tight budget.
Feel free to ask questions or leave feedback.

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