A Fireplace Makeover Inspired by Pinterest

The home decor section on Pinterest is killer!  There are so many great ideas and so many beautiful homes to  get inspiration from. When you have a room with a fireplace, it is often the focal point of the room and if the fireplace is old, dull and outdated...it's time for a fireplace makeover!  Our fireplace is the focal point of our family room and since we moved into our house about year and half ago, a fireplace makeover has been on my short list of projects.

Here's why:

How cute is our little helper in his footie pjs with his toy drill?  He's ready to work!

I found inspiration in several places. Here are links to each to give you an idea of the direction I was headed.

These first two were found on Centsational Girl's website and she doesn't really say whether they were done professionally or whether they were a DIY fireplace makeover.  The inspiration below came from DIY Show Off.  I think the name of the blog speaks for itself that this fireplace makeover was a DIY project.  

So I clearly wasn't tackling this project on my own.  In fact, I will admit I didn't do anything for it except for design the look of it by picking out the paint and stone.  Other than that, my husband Chris and my Dad, a licensed Contractor*, did all the work.  

Here we are as it was a work in progress.  

                                                     

I'm not even going to attempt to give you step by step instructions on how this was done.  The third inspiration photo from DIY Showoff provides instructions but as I said my Dad helped us do this and he is a Licensed Contractor.  The DIY fireplace makeover in the third photo looks good, but I am not sure we would have gotten the same result we got had my Dad not been involved and my husband is really handy and good at stuff like this.  So note to self, this probably isn't the best DIY project for a beginner in my opinion.

I took bits and pieces of each inspiration photo and incorporated them into our project.  I liked the clean look of the light colored book shelves in each photo.  I liked the green color and the stone that was used in both the Centsational Girl's photos. 

Anyway, after a month of working on it here and there, this is our end result!

I love it!  Chris and my Dad did a great job.  I need to do a little bookcase styling, which I will be turning to Pinterest for help with and it will be complete!  Overall, I would recommend using Pinterest for inspiration on your fireplace makeover project.  The ideas I found turned this project into a big PIN, but proceed with caution...this may not be a DIY project for beginners and could turn your PIN into an expensive PASS! 

Fireplace Makeover - Before and After

*If you live in Buffalo, Niagara Falls, or any area within Western New York and would like more information on my Dad's company, visit his site, www.malfaconstruction.com.  Tell him Jenn sent you :-)!