Seaside Style: Before and After

Monday, May 23, 2011

Fireplace and Mantel Transformation Reveal

We have lived in our beautiful home for almost 11 years . It was built in the mid eighties and came with a very eighties brick fireplace. Painting the brick, has been a bone of contention between my husband and myself. I wanted to paint it, he did not. What is it with men and not wanting to paint brick? I have been admiring painted fireplaces for years and watching friend's who blog, redoing theirs, I made an executive decision and went ahead and did it!I am so happy I did!

Fireplace and Mantel

BEFORE

The Mantel is solid Cherry, but when my hubby made it extended out passed the brick and was way to long. The wall color was called Khaki Shorts. See the decoration on the fasure? Hubby put that on as well many years ago when he made the fasure...Pretty dark and drab huh?

This is a better shot of how far the mantel extended outward.

AFTER

I removed the little wood decoration that was there, sanded the wood and

I primed the whole fireplace with one coat of Kilz Primer. I rolled the brick, using 1/14" nap roller. I started with a 3/4 inch . the larger worked better.

I applied 2 coats of Valspar Chef White, in a satin finish.

Hubby shortened the mantel, gave it more of a bevel, with a lathe and re stained it a darker brown.

This is the new color, and this is my real coral, and my dollar store hurricane candle holder's, that I made.

The bottle with the Starfish on it, is a bottle my husband found out at the beach, 20 years ago We were able to figure out it is about 100 years old. The starfish was broken, so i glued it and wrapped jute around it.
The coral on this side is Faux Coral, and found out how to do this from my sweet friend Michelle atEmerald Cove. Check out her post Fun Faux Coral.

Every Spring I put my driftwood in the fireplace,add candles and shells. The candles are sitting on old fish net buoys. Sorry, the candle is crooked.

There boat oars are old and broken, I found them on an island we go to on our boat. I love them.. The Monkey fist, I bought for 16.00! They are normally 50.00

I repainted the whole living room this weekend also, the color is so pretty. It is Valspar Churchill Hotel Ecru, in an eggshell finish.

So there it is, I really like how it turned out, and I am happy to report my husband loves it as well! Have a great Monday !
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Monday, May 9, 2011

Front Porch Make Over

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day! This weekend just seemed to fly by. Saturday I spent the whole day giving the front porch a make over We got to enjoy it with the kids on Sunday!. We have what is called a low country house. We have a front porch that extends the entire length of the house and wraps around. This is what attracted us to the house 11 years ago. The house has under gone several make overs during the years. It used to be a chocolate brown when we bought it. We had it repainted 4 or 5 years ago, along with a new roof, and new windows.Tthis is what the front of the house looked like.

I did have my seashell wreath on the door but took it down before taking the picture/

This is the left side of the porch. Having the Hammock on the porch was NOT my idea We have 4 porch rockers, 2 used to be on each side of the porch, but hubby wanted his hammock under the ceiling fan for 3 years! Understand my frustration when the hammock wasn't used that often and had to look at it there. This was a decor faux pas!

This is the right side of the porch. All the rockers used to be white. I got them all repainted last week.

YAY! I love it! What do you think? New hardware, a new mat, the topiaries, a gift from Ray.

The wicker furniture from the back yard was brought up. I used my hubby's Marine Corp foot locker as a table. I sanded it down a bit . We need new cushion and pillows.

My beat up oars I found exploring on an island one day when we were on the boat.

Behind the chair we are going to put up out door drapes in a linen color. The sun is so bright on this end of the house plus I think it will look great and keep it cool.