We have been wanting to do something with this fireplace for as long as we've lived in our house. When we first saw the house, we hated it. Then, once we moved in, we didn't mind it as much. Converting it from wood-burning to gas was a priority, but the quotes we got for converting ended up being way more money than we expected. (Think $6,000!) We also struggled with what we wanted the fireplace to look like. We planned to rip the whole thing out and do more of a wood/shiplap look, but we loved the bench. Plus, ripping it out and rebuilding would have been more expensive and messy. So, we just left it until we could decide.
While we were home on a snow day in January, two things happened that got things rolling. 1. A friend posted on Instagram about her new gas log insert. I contacted her, and it didn't need a full conversion. 2. I found these pictures of painted stone fireplaces:
Suddenly, we had a plan. We were going to paint the stone and order a gas log insert. We ordered the insert that morning and then we started our last wood-burning fire.
Last fire in the fireplace
The log set we ordered. We liked the white logs, and thought they would play off the marble bench nicely.
Next we ripped out the metal doors and cleaned the inside.
It may be hard to tell from pictures, but there were three stones that stuck out more than the others. The lady who lived here before us had little bird figurines sitting on these three ledges. We knew we wanted to cut them back before painting.
Zach watched a Youtube video, bought a chisel set, and got to work.
Two down, one to go
We had such a mess! Chunks had flown all around the room.
Much better
The next weekend, we tackled the painting.
First, I taped.
Then, Zach painted the inside with high heat paint.
Then, we were ready for primer. I've been painting my whole life, and I usually enjoy it. This job, however, was awful! It was so tedious!
Primer done
After we put the kids to bed that night, we did the first coat of black. One coat took the two of us three full hours. When we were done, we decided it was way too shiny. I went back to Menards in the morning for a flatter paint.
Last coat. Much better!
We asked our friend Troy to help Zach build a mantle. Zach could build the box, but he had no idea how to adhere it securely to the stone.
I chose to not stain the mantle. I liked the color of the wood.
Then we just had to wait for our log set to come in. (Covid had delayed production and delivery times.)
Playing in the empty fireplace
Finally, the logs came in, and a plumber installed them.
We are SO in love with our new fireplace. We love being able to turn it on and off whenever we want and run it for as long as we want.
Before
After
I love sitting and staring at this beautiful thing we created!
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