We moved into our "new to us" home a couple of years ago and I have a LOOONG list of rooms that need makeovers. When Superman goes out of town I seem to get sooo much done! For some reason I just don't feel like sleeping much when he's not here. Anyway, so his last trip was a doosey- 3 weeks!
You know what that meant?
Yeah, makeover time!
Here are some pictures of my main living room wall before...
Excuse the clutter. I have kids. We live here. :)
After playing around with a few colors for the walls. I decided to keep the walls pretty neutral because I had other ideas for bringing color in. I went lighter and less "pinky".
Much more refreshing.
See that fireplace? Yeah, it's hard to miss.
I know. I've never been a big fan of river rock.
I think it's something about all the colors and just the look in general I guess.
What to do?
I had a SUPER great idea, but no one agreed with me.
The more everyone told me I shouldn't do it, the more I wanted to do it and make them all
eat their words!
Mwahaha!
I decided that I wanted to do an antique white wash over all of the rocks. Picture it...a nice old white with a distressed glaze over top.
I was in LOVE with the idea!
I tried finding pictures of others who MUST have had that idea before...nope.
Made me want to do it even more.
But, then I painted the walls.
The light walls screamed for a dark fireplace.
How could they do that to me?!
Dang you walls!!
I was so disappointed!!!
If any of you have a river-rock fireplace and darkish walls..PLEASE let me fulfill my dream!!??
Rather than lightening the fireplace, I stained the whole thing...dark.
I love it!
Almost as much as I would have if I had been able to paint it.
But then there was the mantle. Bleck. Needs to change...
Cue some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint...
Old white.
Better, definitely, but still not what I wanted.
So then this happened...
And finally this is where I landed with this baby...
Chalk paint, some cracked plaster, glaze. Yep. Fun times!
I feel soo much better! How bout you?
Do you like my dark rocks better than the river rock mayhem?
Tell me whatcha think.
I've got an empty trailer, and a load of furniture to pick up!
It's like Christmas morning..almost...I'm not wearing my jammies!
I've got some super exciting things brewing with my business.
Can't tell you yet.
But soon.
Very soon.
Looks amazing, as always.
ReplyDeleteThanks m'dear! :)
DeleteHi, I just came across your blog and its great I have a question if you don't mind I too have a river rock fireplace and its like a grayish color but after seeing what you did to yours OMG!!! AMAZING!!! So could you tell me, I know you mentioned you stained it, but what exactly did you do? Can't wait to hear from you, Thanks, Myrella :)
ReplyDeleteHi Myrella! I got another comment on this post and just noticed your question! I'm so sorry I didn't reply sooner! I used a product called Stain and Seal by Faux Effects. You can google Faux Effects and find their products. I used Vandyke Brown, watered it down about 25% and then used a few big brushes I use for faux and scrubbed it into the rocks. That's about it! It's a great product line I use for so many things. It helps to keep a spray bottle handy with water in it to keep the rocks moist while you are applying the stain. It is a water based product, so using water to move it around is great! Hope that helps! :)
DeleteHi! I just found this blog post after searching all over the internet for someone who had whitewashed their river rock fireplace. NO ONE. Can I ask you what your plan was? I haven't thought about the glaze on top and never used it before. Can you share what you were GOING to do? My email is 2littlelittles@gmail.com . I would be SO grateful! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI know right!? I can't believe that there isn't anyone who has done this, I think in the right room it would look so great! I was going to use Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan to wash the rocks. I would water it down as much as you want for the color that you want to create the wash that you want. Just scrub in the paint with a big brush, or you could use a small wiz roller if you know what that is, and then wipe with a rag. (you would probably need a pile of rags) If I were going to do this I would probably do what I did with the stain and keep a spray bottle with water in it and spray the rocks as I go along- doing that just helps so that the paint or stain doesn't bite in quite so hard and allows you to move it around a bit better. I would just play around with it until I got the look I wanted. Hope that gives you some ideas! Let me know if you have more questions, and post a picture if you actually do it! SO fun!
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