Before and After fireplace surround painting.
Before : A really dark wood, highly polished, imposing old looking fireplace surround
After about 10 coats of paint : A nice clean, fresh, white fire place.
Would I do it again : HELL NO!
What would I do differently : Go to the shop and buy one for £150 !!
Before: This was taken from the estate agents picture, zoomed in.
After:
We're not going to be using this fire, but we decided to keep it as a bit of a feature, and now that it's painted it does look lovely. I may get some black paint to paint the inside.
It took (no joke) about 10 coats of paint to get looking good. I wire-wooled the whole thing to start with, which was a right pain, but it was highly polished so there was no way that the paint was going to stick to it.
This is it wire-wooled, and with a coat of primer + undercoat:
............ then it was just paint / dry / paint / dry ....... repeat
Comments (22)
Sven
8 years ago
pollyannagal
8 years agoRelated Discussions
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Comments (22)thanks everyone! lkirk44 the blue wallpaper is by blendworth and the pattern is called Hex from their Wedgwood collection. it's a really lovely wallpaper!...See MoreBefore & After - East Lothian Family Living Room
Comments (0)The brief was to create a cosy and comfortable family sitting room in a room which is situated close to the kitchen but that, up until that point, had been rather redundant. They wanted the whole family (a couple with three children) to be able to sit comfortably in there together and for it to be appealing, cosy and practical in decor. The lighting was very poor with an ugly overhead pendant and a couple of wall lights. We removed the pendant, putting decorative wall lights on either side of the TV, shelf mounted lights on the shelving units and floor sockets under the sofa so lamps could sit on tables at either end of it wired into a 5 amp circuit that switched at the door. I also added a couple of picture lights. BEFORE: AFTER: A large TV was important to them and the only place to put it was above the fireplace. The existing surround was too high so the fireplace was replaced with a slightly lower and more simple limestone design. A large bespoke shelving unit was designed and built for the wall opposite the fireplace. This was painted so the interior was the colour of the walls and the exterior the colour of the rest of the woodwork in the room which looks very effective. There had been a radiator on this wall but this was removed and two low cast iron radiators were placed within the window reveal. They are all delighted with the new room and use it every day....See MoreMy first house - before and after!
Comments (32)@vv0123 thank you! I restored the windows back to how they would have been originally. The original transom (I think it is called) would have been stone but my dad made mine from timber and I painted it. A couple of houses on my street still have the original feature so I was able to make sure mine looked correct. The two windows were then fitted either side. The windows are plastic but I went for the half/half openers, again to make them look more like original sash windows, plus some of the windows are over 6ft high so it makes them easier to open. The windows came from a local window company in Manchester my dad occasionally fits for. Hope that answers all your questions :)...See MoreBEFORE AND AFTER DECKING UPDATE
Comments (47)New Girl thank you for your lovely kind comments. I did Click & Collect so paid ahead and then collected the paint. I’ve just checked my local stores, nearest one in Letchworth, Herts, and many of them have about 8 cans per store, so is your store telling porkies? I would research any paints you buy as paying more doesn’t always mean better quality. Silver Birch was one I considered and it does look lovely. Good luck!...See More
PROAlenaCDesign
8 years agonlacon
8 years ago
PROamordesigns
8 years agoTim Summers
8 years agoYou know what - the paint selection was pretty hit-and-miss actually. It was simply the cheap Homebase own brand. We'd bought Farrow & Ball for the walls, and other expensive paint for the ceiling, some other expensive paint for the woodwork - I was already stressing about the the £'s spent on paint alone, so grabbed this.
I didn't want it super shiney - but I didn't want it matt. Thought that eggshell would do the trick.
I may actually put a layer of clear varnish on the top shelf as that'll make it easier to dust.
The new sofas come today so that's actually Room 1 99% completed (just need some artwork)
Glad people like the fireplace though :)
- PRO
AlenaCDesign
8 years ago dianas1505
8 years agoA A
8 years agodianas1505
8 years agoA A
8 years agoJune Hulton
8 years agociarandance
8 years agoTim Summers
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoI notice that this post is still getting quite a bit of attention. So, now a few months down the line, and I've forgotten how much of a nightmare it was to get perfect - I retract my origional comment of not doing it again - and will replace it with - "Possibly the best thing that I've done in the house so far, and I'm really, really pleased with it"
I also painted the inside black - which makes a massive difference as well.
Now that the room is 99% complete - I wouldn't want it any other way.
Anyway, here's how it looks in situ.
dianas1505
8 years agoTim Summers
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoThanks!
We've used 2 colours actually - each ever so slightly different tone.
On 2 walls we've used F&B Elephants Breath (on the wall behind the 4 seater sofa - pic below and around/in the bay window)
(I'm currently looking for a big piece of art of some type to go on this wall)
The other 2 walls are painted in Toasted Almond which is Crown (the fireplace wall, and the wall with the double doors through to the dining room - pic 4 from above)
On the pic below you can see that there is a very slight difference between the two.
We get the morning/early afternoon sun through the windows so put the F&B on the walls that are bathed in sunlight as it looks amazing.
FYI - The crown toasted almond looks totally different on the wall, in natural sunlight than it does on the colour charts / internet etc.
PROThe Bulb Co
8 years agoTim Summers
8 years agoThanks.
Oh yeah, we're definately doing other rooms ! The whole house from top to bottom eventually. This room was top priority as it's the sitting room, we wanted to put our 'stamp on the place'.
We've only been moved in since the start of the year.
This is the before room, taken from the Estate Agents listing:
.......... And now (trying to take a pic from the same place)
The conservatory is hard to change, pic taken from the Estate Agents listing:
....... And now (taken this morning) - currently has our old sofa in there until we find some conservatory furniture that doesn't look like it belongs in a 1970's old peoples home.
Only change is really the addition of blinds
The study pic taken from the Estate Agents listing:
.......... and now it's my man cave / music room
And then ..............
The current kitchen is getting ripped out and a new one put in starting 30th May.
There is also a dividing wall that's being taken down between the kitchen and dining room to allow for a breakfast bar and a much bigger space. Designs from the kitchen people below
Oh, and the double garage is slowly taking shape into the gym:
Sorry for picture overload.
- PRO
The Bulb Co
8 years ago dianas1505
8 years agoHU-517916594
9 days ago
Pat Auld