My new project

Our fireplace has been white since we moved into this house, and I have not liked it very well. When we first moved here, everything was white. The walls, trim, fireplace and everything! I like white, but not that much! I decided to try a new project to see if I can paint the fireplace to make it look more rustic. I got the idea from watching HGTV's ColorSplash. I am an HGTV addict :). I started painting the fireplace yesterday, and so far it is going well. I think I really like it. Jeff is going to make a fireplace mantle to replace the ugly gray one. Here is the before....

And here it is after it has dried. Jeff ripped out the mantle. We were surprised to find out that it was one solid block of concrete covered in some kind of marble finish. The thing weighed a ton! We don't have a new mantle yet. Jeff is planning to make one, so it still isn't finished. I think it looks much better than before, even without the mantle! The area where the mantle was looks a little funky because they had glued the mantle in place, so I had a hard time covering up the marks that left. It won't matter anyways because the new mantle will cover that up. So far I like how it looks. It completely changes the look of the whole living room.