1970’s Dramatic Fireplace Makeover {reveal}

Our 1970’s fireplace makeover has been a long time coming. My parents bought our house over 30 years ago and this fireplace has been a bit of an eye sore for all these years. My mom loved the stone but combined with the outdated brass insert and abundance of stone, it seemed to lack character and screamed 1970’s. My dad and I spent about 4 weekends (about 8 hours each weekend) updating the fireplace and giving it a new wooden surround.

Here is the before fireplace. This room has undergone a MAJOR transformation.

My dad is in love with this fireplace now and if you have been following us through stage 1, 2 and 3 of this makeover journey, you know he wanted no part of this makeover. Every night when he gets home from work, he goes in this room and just stares at the fireplace. It makes me giggle every time.

Here is the room before when it was used as the kids playroom. A complete hodge podge of furniture, mis-matched shelves, cabinets, toys and whatever else didn’t have a home.

The entire room is shaping up and the fireplace is by far, one of my favorite DIY projects yet. The impact that the wooden surround has added vs the previous stone is dramatic. I used Sherwin Williams Extra White Pro Classic paint in a semi gloss finish. Sherwin Williams provided complimentary  paint for our study makeover but all opinions are mine. The paint is super smooth and gorgeous.

I will share with you next week how I added the decorative molding trim as well as how we constructed the mantle which was the final touch to bringing this fireplace to life.

When I first thought about updating our 1970’s fireplace, I wasn’t thinking it would end up being such a big task. Honestly, I thought we could get it done in a weekend, maybe two. My dad is a genius when it comes to structural aspect and how to make it work. However, he is terrible as visualizing and figuring out the design aspect. We might have cursed a few times at each other during this month long project and maybe even shed a few tears (on my part) but in the end, we figured it out and achieved what he said, was impossible. We are planning to put a pellet stove with the insert as we don’t use the stove because the burning wood aggravates my allergies. Be sure to check your local and state code when renovating a fireplace. Adding wood to the side of your fireplace can be a fire hazard so be sure to check your local fire code.  I am happy check this baby, the fireplace makeover, off of the renovation bucket list!