Wednesday, May 8, 2013

First Time Pinterest Challenge!

So, Young House Love is one of my favorite blogs to read everyday.

And... this is my first time at participating in their Pinterest Challenge!






And whaddya know, the Pinterest inspiration also comes from YHL, here is the original post.  Isn't it a beauty? It's made of marble tile (oooooh) in a herring bone pattern (aaaah)!

So here we go:

This was part of my basement renovation, I saw the Pin online when I was debating how I should tackle the mantle of the fireplace.

First, let's look at this fireplace (before) from afar:


Closeup:




Then, I started to reface it:





I directly applied the mortar to the brick (instead of using cement board) for a few reasons:

1.  Brick was straight, no loose brick (I fixed some top ones that were loose)
2.  Brick was bare, any sealer had worn off of it over time (I mean... my house is 85 years old, after all)
3.  I lightly sanded the brick with 60 grit sandpaper so that the mortar would have something to cling onto.

Some key points here with stacked stone tile are:

1.  Keep it level.  Stone will not stack correctly if you don't keep it level!
2.  Lay the tile out first, on the floor or something.   This way, you can arrange the tile how you want it since the color of the tile are all different. The last thing you want is uneven colors... evenly distribute the darker tiles and lighter tiles.
3.  This may sound obvious, but start at bottom and move up.  The stone sits on top of each other.  The stone is too heavy for the mortar to be its support.

The #3 above is hence why I have an odd-looking, jerry-rigged wood support system for tile in the middle:



Then, I needed a mantle.  It was an odd size (57" long) so I said, maybe a 60" shelf will work?  So I started looking... but couldn't really find anything I liked.

This is when the YHL blog post on their fireplace reface really REALLY helped me out!  YHL made their own mantle out of MDF and I took what they did at the top with the 2x8, crown molding.

I got the materials:

1 - 6 ft 2x8 piece of board
2 - 6ft 1x2 stain grade trim pieces
1 - 6ft crown molding
1 - 6ft 1x4

Then I built this:
 



After two coats of paint, I liquid nailed it on top of the mantle for the finished beauty:






What Pinterest Challenge will you take on this Spring?  A spring wreath?  A summer pasta salad made from scratch?  Basement fireplaces...???




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