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My dreams are slowly coming true as the days pass... Nathan is working his butt off on the fireplace wall and as it progresses, I am getting more and more excited to share it with you all!
This project has been a long time coming. Since the moment we purchased our home, we both didn't know what to do with this "front room" area (side note: what is a front room? Someone once told me it's a Midwest thing - do you have a front room?) Here are some before photos of the wall that the fireplace is going on... Notice how one picture is an "Instagram worthy" photo and the other is a typical before photo? Ya... that furniture was WAY too small for that wall but I made it look realllll good for that Instagram post! Just goes to show you, that not everything on Instagram is how it may seem!
Okay, back to the fireplace wall - originally when Nathan and I began discussing ideas for this wall, we intended on sticking with the whiskey/alcohol theme 100%. We were going to install cabinets with a few under-counter wine fridges and it was going to be a full bar area... WELL, then I saw two of my favorite accounts on Instagram (Kismet House & Nesting With Grace) do a DIY fireplace project and there was no turning back from there. The idea was in my head and we were rolling with it.
We nixed the wine fridge idea (honestly, we were both a little sad about it) BUT we knew that adding a fireplace would be just as awesome and even better for resale value (score!)
Being an interior designer by trade, I typically draw up plans for Nathan in AutoCad and create mood boards to help him visualize what I'm talking about. See the moldboard I put together below! I'm also sharing progress pictures because like I said... Nathan is the fastest worker and as I'm writing this, he's painting the shiplap... I can't type fast enough!
After Nathan framed and drywalled the fireplace, we ended up changing the design; we decided to only use two shelves instead of three. I taped out the shelf heights one night and we both agreed that the spacing was not working and that two would be better than three in the long run. P.S. - if you need help visualizing something; painter's tape is the best way to "draw" things out in a non-permanent way!
Que the snowball effect - since we changed the number of shelves, we decided that we now had room to add sconces above the top shelf. This was PERFECT because something our house lacks is can lighting. That "front room" has terrible lighting (aka none) so, in the evenings it's really dark and we've always complained about the lack of lighting.
Problem solved - we sourced swing arm sconces that night, Nathan ran new electrical the next day (perks of being married to an electrician) and we were in business. I was pretty excited about the swing arm lights. I see them all over social media and I've always wanted to use them in our home but never had the opportunity - well, that clearly changed over night!
Okay, back to the shiplap - we decided to use the same shiplap that we used in our Mud Room renovation... and let me tell you, I cannot say enough good things about this shiplap! It's a tongue and grove design and it is THE. BEST. THING. EVER. Is it more expensive that buying plywood, cutting it and using a quarter to create the spacing? Yes, of course. But it's s worth it... 100% worth it. The finished product looks amazing and so clean lined - I'll never use a different shiplap. Plus, there is actually no "gap", which I love because gaps trap dust... and no thank you. We have enough dust in our home as it is, I don't need it getting stuck in the gaps of our shiplap.
From there, we had paint color matched to our trim, Nathan put up the shiplap (making all the necessary cuts around light switches and opening for the lights), nailed up all the shiplap, I helped puttied the nail holes and sand, then Nathan primed and painted the shiplap! Simple as that, right? Well, that's where we are at for now.
Next steps are picking up the tile, tiling the fireplace (tune into my Instagram stories for that!), then install the cabinets, floating shelves, lighting, and butcher block! For now, here are some progress pictures and sources to the products we are using! Stay tuned for the full reveal in a week or so!
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