I have always wanted a real or faux fireplace but I've yet to live anywhere that had a real one and I never really found a faux one that was the color I wanted for a reasonable price. But, this summer I got LUCKY!!!- my favorite aunt decided to downsize and sell her home so she pretty much gave me this one that she no longer had room for...score for me(whoot whoot) lol. As you can see below it was a light oak color before and it looked great in her fabulous home but I needed it to be darker to look fabulous in mine... So, this self proclaimed spray paint diva got busy ;););) But, much to my dismay this project almost turned into my worst nightmare. I honestly thought my biggest problem was going to be finding the right primer...BOY, was I wrong. I started of by cleaning all the furniture polish off and gave it a good light sanding then I used Zinsser Bullseye 123 spray primer then I spray painted it with Rustoleum 2x spray paint in dark walnut satin...I thought everything was going smooth until it dried...much to my horror it dried cloudy on the bottom part- so, I decided to wait a couple days to let it dry & go over it again but after it dried it was the same problem . I went to home depot to talk to the paint guy to see what he thought I was doing wrong...turns out condensation from the grass was mixing with my paint because we didn't really have a hot dry summer so he told me I should take it in the house to paint it to avoid that plus humidity issues so, since I couldn't really spray paint in the house he mixed me up a quart of glidden interior paint the same color as the spray paint I had used and he also suggested I get a quart of the glidden primer too. I know this sounds exhausting & it is now typing it and it for sure was living it...lol. I had to wait a couple weeks to let the spray paint dry for sure then I got busy sanding, priming, & painting again...while the paint was wet it looked pretty good and I was relieved thinking I was done...until it dried it was nothing like the color it was supposed to be:( I was so upset & about to give up on the whole thing but I decided to give it one last shot so back to home depot I went. I was getting worried about having too many coats of paint on it but the paint guy reassured me it would be fine because I let it dry pretty good but I was having trouble finding the color I wanted and was for sure afraid to have some mixed for me & then I came across the best thing ever!!! Rustoleum paint in oil rubbed bronze & in a can-it even had a fireplace on the can & the rest was history!!! I use ORB spray paint all the time & love it but wasn't convinced I could use it for my project so I consulted with my new BFF the paint guy & he said it would be fine & even better he said I didn't even have to prime again or anything!!! I could of kissed that man I was so freaking happy!!!lol
I had to wait another day to start painting again but when I did I knew instantly it was magic ;) After it dried I got some wood embellishments at Hobby Lobby & painted those up and glued them on with gorilla glue to help dress it up :)- (the fleur de lis embellishments in the before pic that you see were to heavy for me to chance using) I have to say that it isn't perfect but, even after all the blood, sweat, & tears I'm in LOVE with it & I'm pretty happy with the end result. I didn't go crazy decorating the mantle just yet because I really wanted to show the actual fireplace off- BUT, I can't wait to play around with it more and I'm for sure looking forward to decorating it for the holidays:):):) Sorry for such a long winded post & I would love to hear what anyone thinks???... Thanks so much for stopping by. Until next time~ xoxo Stacey
P.S- This week I'm linking up with Maria Elena for Tuesdays at our home & I'm also linking up with Kate for my 1st Flaunt it Friday...I LOVE both blogs :):):)
