Posts Tagged "Fireplace"

My faux-fireplace focalpoint (the big reveal!)

Posted by Joy on Apr 2, 2012 in Living Room | 0 comments

So, as you may remember from this post, my living room was pretty sad looking a couple weeks ago.  It was terribly tv-centric (the last thing we wanted in our cute little living room!) and blaaaaaaand…

Drab and dreary eh?  And the television practically hollers, “Look at me!  I’m the tv!  And not even a nice compact flatscreen telly either.  No siree bob.  I’m a big ol’ box of a beast.  And I’m all you’re going to notice when you walk into the living room.  Ha.  So there.”

(My television is obviously a wee bit of a snobby show-off.)

Here’s what our living room looks like now that we’ve given it a little faux-fireplace love… :)

Sooo much better eh?  I’m quite pleased.  :)  Obviously we still need to accessorize.  I just quickly added the white/teal accessories to the left corner of the mantel (cuz it looked really sad without) and Sweetie put the mirror up last weekend, and that’s as far as we’ve gotten so far (btw, that mirror is apparently rather busy traveling around our house!  You may remember it as my happy little above-stove mirror from this post.  I suppose that means that it’s versatile.  Or that I need to buy another large-ish-sized round mirror.  Although Sweetie says we have far too many mirrors in this house already.  Boys are rather silly like that.  But I digress…)

The fireplace hole (technical term) still needs filling up with something (I’m just not sure with what yet.)  And I need to find another horizontal surface on which to perch the television.  I just moved our existing tv-cabinet to the right and called it a day, but really it’s too large/deep (and, well, too pine.)  A pretty little old white-painted dresser would be a lovely replacement, though, no?  :)

Lastly?  (Well, doubtful that it’ll be a “lastly” sort of thing, but in the foreseeable future…)  We also need to either mount that mirror to the left of the mantel to the wall (hmmm… maybe Sweetie has a point on that too-many-mirrors thing…)  (nah…) or stack a few images vertically on the wall or something.  Same thing for the right side above the telly (I just plopped a few prints [courtesy of Etsy sellers honeytree and AldariArt] around the tv, trying to cleverly camouflage the big black box.  It’s semi-effective?)

BUT, all-in-all, the living room avec faux-fireplace is BETTER.  And, honestly, I can’t tell you how excited I am to be able to hang our stockings from something other than either a) the television cabinet or b) the window moulding (true story) next Christmas.  Only 8 months-ish to go!  (I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for Christmas!)  (It’s amazing what a lovely faux-fireplace can do!  :)

Is it getting warmer in here? (The art of creating a non-tv-centric living room)

Posted by Joy on Feb 27, 2012 in Living Room | 0 comments

When we moved into this house, Sweetie was quite opposed to having a tv in our living room.  The living room is the first room you see once you’ve stepped through our front door (well, if you look left it is at least – if you focus straight ahead, like I suppose most normal people would, you see our kitchen) (but if you happen to have a weird crick in your neck when you visit, you might see our living room first) and he said he wanted the living room to be for relaxing and visiting with people.  He didn’t want the focal point of the room to be the television.

I fought him on this, and won.  :)  I do most of the cooking, and our house is quasi-open from the kitchen to the living room, and I wanted the option of having tv noise in the background while cooking/doing dishes/puttering around the kitchen.

But, he was right.  We’ve rearranged our living room a couple of times, and still the focal point of the room is the tv, surrounded by a big blank wall.

Our mighty lackluster living room

Jacob channeling his inner Ra

Not pretty eh?  The room looks…  unfinished.  And a little silly.  And very tv-centric.  Even if the cats don’t seem to care.  I’ve pondered adding a gallery wall around the tv.  I’ve tried grouping the tv with other things (oooh!  Maybe a big green star will cleverly camouflage the telly!), attempting to make it stand out less.   But, alas, the tv is, and has remained, the focal point in the room.  :(

Enter: inspiration.  While taking a random chatter-break at work one day (because it’s the only way to stay sane sometimes) Clint (friend and coworker extraordinaire) suggested putting a fireplace on the end wall of our living room.  BRILLIANT.  (I have rather smart friends.)  A fireplace would surely become the focal point in the room.  And, importantly, a fireplace would also give us a much better place to hang our stockings at Christmas (we currently hang them from the tv stand) (it’s sad, and rather pathetic, but true.)  (Don’t tell.)

So, after a wee bit of searching, a fireplace I found, via the fine folk at Kijiji.  :)

It’s not a functioning fireplace (in case the sparkly white insides weren’t a tip-off.)  Just a mantel with a non-functioning fireplace hole (technical term.)  But I love it.  And I pick it up tomorrow.  :)

And so, with fireplace purchase imminent, I’ve proceeded to Get My Pinterest On.  Of course.  Which has yeilded so many brilliant ideas for what to do with that non-functional fireplace hole.

I could fill it with pretty vases and the odd bloom…

Lovely fireplace filled with vases and purdy flowers courtesy of tumblr

I could get Sweetie to chop me some wood and fill it with artfully placed log-ends (as found through Brunch with Darling):

All rustic-y and filled with logs via Brunch with Darling

I could go simple and chic, and just add a pretty basket, like the brilliant folk at The Lettered Cottage did:

Simply styled with a basket from The Lettered Cottage

And then maybe switch things up for the seasons (so clever, and so easy!) like they did here:

The same fireplace, all cute and Christmassied-up!

Or, maybe I could go the classic route, and fill my fantastic fireplace hole with simple white pillar candles, a la Young House Love:

Young House Love's pillar-filled kitchen warmer

Or I could just rotate all of the above (and really keep the cats on their toes.)  :)  There are SO many different and lovely options!  (Can you tell I’m excited?)  (Yep – I’m super excited!)  Where will the tv go now?  I’m not sure.  It’ll probably end up on SOMETHING in the corner behind one of the tub-chairs, receding somewhat into the background (I hope.)  I’m hoping to find a little refinished dresser or something like that to use as a super cute (and non-pine) tv stand (queue additional scouring of Kijiji ads.)  Or perhaps Sweetie will build me some built-in-like shelving on either side of the fireplace.  Ah!  So much potential for my once sad looking tv-centric living room.  It makes me happy.  I’ll keep you posted. :)