Hello friends,

I know I’ve been very quiet here in the blog, but with winter almost over, I’ve been busy again with several DIY projects, still trying to make some improvements to our lovely farmhouse.

We are now almost done decorating our “fireplace room”. It is funny how so many colonial houses were built with two large, sometimes identical family rooms across from each other, separated by the entry hall. I guess that layout made sense to the family lifestyle back then, but nowadays, not so much. You have to come up with some creative ideas to turn the second room into a functional space, or it will end up being that one nice and tidy room in the house that you only visit when it’s time to clean.

I will post pictures of the entire room once the new blinds arrive. For now, I want to share with you how I painted the area around the fireplace, which was a real eyesore to us. We considered replacing the whole thing but the cost of it was simply prohibitive.

Here is how it looked before.

I know, just dull and ugly. I needed to do something affordable about it so I decided to paint the door and the black area around it.

Here is how it looks now.

The Reclaimed Barn Wood Panel we installed definitely added a rustic charm to the wall, but it also enhanced the ugliness of the fireplace itself. By the way, I did a lot of research on the Internet before finally purchasing these peel-and-stick planks, and they were by far the best cost-benefit. In case you are interested, here is the affiliate link to it on Amazon: Reclaimed Barn Wood Wall – Easy Peel and Stick

And now I’ll show you step by step how I painted the fireplace doors and frame.

Here is a list of the supplies I used (there are some affiliate links in this list).

• • • Windex, to clean the surfaces
    • Painters Tape
    • Fusion Mineral Paint Ultra-grip
    • Fusion Mineral Paint “Ash”
    • Modern Masters Metallic Paint, Silver
    • Modern Masters Metallic Paint, Black Pearl
    • Chip Brushes
    • General Finishes Top Coat, satin
    • Staalmeester Flat Paint Brush
    • General Finishes Pitch Black Glaze
    • Baby Wipes

   

First I removed the doors and cleaned all surfaces with Windex using paper towel then taped all areas I wanted to protect from the paint.

Next I applied one coat of Fusion Mineral Paint Ultra-grip, which is a kind of clear primer used to prepare tricky surfaces such as tiles and metal for paint. I had already used it to paint the backsplash in my kitchen and knew it would be perfect for this project too.

Once the ultra-grip was dry, I applied one coat of “Ash” by Fusion Mineral Paint. It is a beautiful dark gray to lay the base color I needed for the metallic colors coming next. I used one of my favorites high quality paint brushes for this part to avoid brush marks and achieve a smooth surface with only one coat.

I let the paint dry then, on a paper plate, I put two blobs of the metallic paint colors I used for this project, Silver and Black Pearl.

I partially mixed the two colors on the chip brush bristles and started applying them horizontally on the black surface, starting from the top. On my video tutorial you can see better how I worked on this area to achieve the striae effect I was going for.

Time to paint the doors.

As always, I started by cleaned and taping them.

Next I applied one coat the ultra-grip on the metal frame and handles.

After it was dry, I brushed two coats of Modern Masters Silver paint.

I waited about two hours and finally applied the black glaze using a chip brush then removing the excess immediately using baby wipes.

I painted the handles in Fusion Mineral Paint, “Ash”.

Finally, I sealed the whole thing by brushing one coat of General Finishes Water Based Top Coat, satin.

And the final result! This is how the whole wall looks now!

VIDEO TUTORIAL

Click the image below to watch my short video tutorial. Nothing better to learn than watching the real action.

Let me know what you think of this makeover!

Thanks a lot for reading!

Patricia.

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