After our closing on Friday we celebrated with lunch at Urban Spoon, and then the real fun began. We pulled up the carpet in the living room and dining room and discovered this:
Of course, we'd hope to find the hardwood floors in decent shape, so that we could just have them sanded and refinished. Alas the three dogs that have lived with the previous owner had obviously not been fully house trained, and their urine had thoroughly stained parts of the floors and even rotted them in spots. So we've torn up the hardwoods as well and are having new flooring installed next week. I can't wait to see what the new 4 inch, slightly darker hardwood will look like. Thankfully the hardwoods upstairs are in much better condition and can be salvaged.In the meantime, do you guys have any suggestions for this fireplace in our living room? I like the white wood mantel, but we're not crazy about the faux red brick and tile or the gold hood-like thing. Any thoughts? We're planning to paint the room a neutral--maybe a light brown/khaki-ish color.
p.s. I'm grateful for so many people's help this last week--whether they're giving us advice or lending a hand with our demolition or cleaning.
12 comments:
Congrats on the purchase of your new home! Too bad about the old hardwood -- but I bet the new flooring will look GREAT!
For the fireplace, I'd recommend getting rid of the gold hood (or painting it white if you can't) and painting the brick white. I really regret not painting the red brick fireplace in my last house. I don't know why I thought that one detail might make a big difference to a potential future buyer.
I can't wait to see the transformation as you go!
r8chel: Thanks for the ideas! I definitely want to remove the gold hood, and I like the idea of painting the brick white....I'm just not sure what to do with those brick tiles...for some reason I think they'll look weird painted white. Maybe we need to buy white tile?
congrats on the new house! I would paint the brick white and remove the gold thing. Also, removing those brick tiles shouldn't be too hard and you'll be able to replace them with something you'll love! Good luck!
Ha, so funny to get hit with the HGTV bug, happened to me too when we bought our house! Love the ideas of painting the brick white, been wanting to do that with ours for a while. You need to send Erica some photos, she has great ideas! Would love if HGTV comes to your house! One of my faves on that channel is Income Property and Divine Design. Anyway, tried to comment the other day about Thatcher's addiction to binkies...think it is hysterical!
OHML: Thank you! Yep, I'm thinking the fireplace will be one of our easier projects.
Trish: You're right--Erica is so good at that stuff. Hopefully your girls won't have binkies by the time Thatch meets them :)
I was going to suggest painting the brick white as well. As for the tile on the hearth, perhaps you coudl replace it with some darker tiles in a larger pattern? It should be that hard to remove and replace. Oh, and maybe invest in a pretty screen for the front?
If you could see a few fireplaces or even pictures might give you some good ideas. Hoot has to go and screen is definitely good idea. The HGTV programs will definitely give you some good ideas re:what you may want to do. Can't wait to see it. Dr. RJJ
Pam: Painting the brick white seems to be the consensus! Now I just need to research whether I need special paint for that....
Dr. RJJ: Yes, I've found one photo of a fireplace similar to ours with the bricks painted white...just still haven't figured out the front tiled part and what we'd like there.
Oooh, how cool would it be if you ended up on one of those HGTV shows?!?! :-D
you could paint and remove the hood as suggested above. Since it looks like you tore out all the flooring, you can pick out some tile or stone at Floor and decor and remove the old stuff. If you have an air compressor, go get an air chissel (50 bucks or less) and it makes tile removal a real snap.
TC: Um super cool! Especially if it saves us some $$ :)
icadle: So fun to hear from you! And you should know with all of your hardwork!
I've really got into DIY since moving here :D It's such a fun and rewarding hobby, isn't it?
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