I’ve been staring at the fireplace lately, wondering if I should paint it gray like the cabinets in the kitchen or perhaps maybe just re-tile the surround or paint the tile instead for a super cheap and easy fix? It doesn’t look bad, definitely better than when we moved in to what I used to call the house “the beige turd” but it just doesn’t pop like I want it too and often I feel accessories on the mantel don’t stand out as well as they could and the chairs blend in as well. I still love my walls so that won’t change anytime soon.
PLEASE DO NOT PIN PICTURES THAT ARE NOT MINE! If you would like to pin one of the pictures below, please click on the link or the photo itself and pin from the ORIGINAL site! Thank you!!!
Our dream plan for the family room looks very similar to this that did but that is years down the road at this point, so I’m looking to change it up until then, a quick fix, nothing spendy or long term that can’t be changed when we eventually do add the bookcase wall.
First up is the cheap route, painting the tile on the fireplace. The girls at East Coast Creative did it with a stencil and it looks fabulous.
This is a beautiful example of gray painted brick on a fireplace.
My friend Cassie at has a lovely all gray fireplace.
Another option, just painting the white mantel gray and leaving the tile or painting the tile white, I wish mine was marble like this one from .
Or paint the tile and most of it gray and the mantel white. I really love this one from .
Then I think maybe I should just re-do the surround. I’ve had my eye on that forever, wanting to do something like this. That’s pure goodness right there! I love how they built up the wall above the fireplace as well to give the mantel some oompphh.
But I also LOVE marble tile and then it would eventually match my future counter tops. Why hello, gorgeous! definitely knows how to rock out a fireplace and that shell is pretty sweet too. To re-tile the fireplace would cost around $30 if I used 12×12 marble looking tiles I found at today.
This picture is pure love to me! This would be the ultimate makeover, the marble tile and gray fireplace mantel! Seriously, the marble, the gray, the straight lines, the curtains, the flooring, it’s love! Go check out the rest of the house at and wipe the drool off your keyboard when you’re done, it’s all so gorgeous!
So many different directions I could take this little mini-makeover!
Inspiration has struck! I will hopefully be back soon with a fireplace makeover! I’d love to hear about your fireplace too, love it, hate it, wish you had one or maybe you even have some inspiration for me! Tell me about it!
I see two great minds are mulling over the same issues! I love all the examples and ideas you provided – I will pin this entire post so that I can share it with clients when we are brainstorming options for fireplace surrounds. I think yours already looks good – maybe if you had a few more creamy off-white accessories, incorporating both white and off-white, it would come together the way you’d like it to. It’s amazing how very white it looks in the before, then when you surround it in true white, how yellow-beige it really reads! Color is so relative!
Glad to see you back blogging, Ange! We just painted our 80’s brick fireplace gray. It looks a lot like the one from Design Sponge. I love it! I can’t believe it took me so long to paint it. Next up I really want to add some molding around it, but for now I’m just happy the old brick color is gone.
I am pretty new to Pinterest and pinning so am wondering why, if you don’t want anyone to pin certain photos, why do those photos have a Pin It button on them. I don’t really understand all of it.
Thank you so much for the explanation about pinning. By reading your blog, I’ve learned not only about pinning but about blogging. And with your explanation, I now understand when I see people commenting about “pinning from the original source”.
Thanks so much!
thank you for the shout out! i can’t wait to see what you do!