The fireplace in any home is typically a gathering place. It’s the central place in your home where you want to spend time and is a huge focal point. You can see our, when you first walk in the front door or when your standing in the kitchen either cooking or eating. Partly because our living space is just one great big room, but it also makes the fireplace and mantle such a big point of interest.

Now with that all being said, when we first moved into this house the fireplace was not our style at all.  In fact, a lot of the house wasn’t our style.  We have slowly done projects around the house as we have the time, energy and money to update. This is the great part of living in an old house, you can update it and change it as you go, and as your style evolves. Don’t feel like you have to completely rip your entire house apart from the very beginning. Changing things as you go can actually give you time to let your style mature along with your changes.

For us, our style has definitely changed over the years and we have made incremental changes to the first place making it feel more and more like “our” home. While I wouldn’t say our fireplace is completely done as there are still some things I want to tweak here and there, but it’s so much better than where it stared!

When we first purchased the house, this is what the fireplace looked like . . .

Before we even moved in my husband tore out the built in, because we knew it needed to go.  And we then quickly got some bricklayers out to create a new fireplace wall for us.

From there I decided that I preferred a little brighter look, so I white-washed the fireplace with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  And let me tell you this brightened up our room so much!

Then on a trip to Round Top, I found this mantle and knew we just had to have it.

I just love having a mantle to be able to decorate and change with the seasons. At this time the mantle is not even attached to the brick yet, as we haven’t even gotten that far, but I love the contrast that the black mantle adds against the white brick!

I still like to keep it very simple, and most of the time I keep my collection of brass candlesticks on the mantle because it seems to go with everything!