The fireplace is finished! And to my surprise, I got it finished in time for Thanksgiving!  I am very pleased with how if came out.

The hearth had this very cheap looking tile on it, which was actually over the original brick.  When the previous owner updated the mantle, they added some width to it.  Instead of adding brick or another stone to the hearth, they framed it with 2x2's and tiled over it.  A cheap fix and that's how it looked.

They used a lot of mastic and it was very difficult to remove.  After trying to hack it off by hand with  a chisel and hammer, Mike took to it with an air chisel and off it came!

I went back and forth and sideways about the brick surround....leave it alone?....tile over it?....paint it?....whitewash it? There were a few conversations about it and I ultimately decided that it needed something and that I would start with whitewashing it.  If I hated the whitewashed brick, I could always paint or tile over it.  Well, I LOVED it!

Now to tiling the hearth....it went very quickly!  And what a difference!

I just love how it looks with the blue walls and pops of orange for Fall!  I can't wait to see how it looks for Christmas!

My next small project is the little brown table.  I started painting it gray and love how its coming out.  It still needs to be waxed and distressed. I will share it when I get around to finishing it.

In the meantime, it gets moved out, along with the brown arm chair, to make room for the Christmas tree.

Happy decorating for the holidays!!!!