A Fireplace and Door Facelift /Met Monday/ TodaysThrifty Treasures

Hi All! I hope you all had a wonderful week-end and got all rested up for the week ahead.

http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/I am adding this older post to the Blog Party at Funky Junk Interiors please click on the link to see inspiring posts!    
Today I'm joining Susan @ http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ and Rhoda @ http://southernhospitality.blogspot.com/ for there blog parties. Please give them a visit when your finished here. I like my stone fireplace but have always felt it was a little too rustic for my taste. The previous owners had made a rustic looking mantle and it was supported by these big ugly posts. I also thought the gold doors looked pretty bad and needed a changed. See pic above and below for before pics of our fireplace. We've lived in this home for almost 2 years and are gradually getting it to where we want.

I was so happy when Dan said he would do a fireplace face lift! Oh joy, a new mantle for me! Keeping the thrifty in mind he started out with a can of black spray paint to the doors.

Old mantle removed and he's getting ready to go!

Black paint to the doors.

We found these travertine tiles on sale at Home Depot for 15.00 a box. We took a chance and just bought one box and actually had one tile to spare. There is a lot of tedious work getting the tiles on and grouted just right. It's hard to tell, but the tiles have lots of interesting variations that add some character and the off white brightens things up a bit.

My talented hubby then went to work constructing a new mantle. Our floors our hickory so he used a combination of walnut,maple, and cherry to give it variations. He also used the old mantle as his core.

Here you can see the routered edges he added. I am so happy with the lovely wood variations and the beautiful edges.

We found these cool bronze metal brackets last week-end and I thing they add a nice touch.

A finished view!

I am so happy with the results! Total thrifty cost for our fireplace facelift is about $50.00 and of course a lot of hard work by hubby! I bid on a fireplace screen that I love on E-bay and lost but then I got offered a 2nd chance at the highest price I was willing to pay so hurray, hurray it's on its way. I'm also working on a new wreath to put up and a few new decor ideas!

Now on to the ugly steel door. This door is at the end of the hall that leads out to our garage. I thought we should just replace it because it was major ugly and there were dents in it. Dan thought that he could fix it up just fine and make it look lovely!

He primed and painted and smoothed out the dents. He then painted the inside of the indentations an apple red and crackled over them. The rest of the door was painted a cottage white.

A finished view! I can't believe it's the same door and it brightens everything up so much!

I won't be posting much this week because the County Fair starts and I'm taking some exhibits! I will be coming around to visit all of you as much as I can. Have a wonderful week! Cindy