The fireplace design

Hello everybody! I’m back home sweet home after being away in Atlanta last week. Another successful Haven Conference is in the books!! Thanks to all of you who attended and all of our vendors and sponsors who help to make it a success! Every year I leave feeling so humbled and blessed. I came home and crashed hard – and then my boy got sick so we’re still nursing his bug. Back to normal! :)

Today I’m sharing the process I went through to decide on our new fireplace design. THIS is the fun part for sure. Usually I’d spend months pouring over photos to figure out exactly what I wanted, but this time I had to hurry it up a bit. The fireplace happened a lot faster than I thought it would because we had to have that figured out to move the gas line and lights.

Thankfully that built was the majority of the cost in this project – from here on out it’s not too bad. And even though I had to hurry up my normal process, I’ve known what my “dream” fireplace looks like for years anyway. ;) I just wanted to find some pics to show the guys.

There were a couple things I was considering to change up the look even more. I love the look of a grand fireplace and as I was looking through inspiration photos I noticed that the ones that really struck me had two things – a hearth of some kind and they were raised up off the floor a bit.

Our fp has always been down to the floor and has never had a hearth:

I’ve always thought raising up the box and adding a hearth would make it feel grander, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do either one. I started doing some research to see if it was something I REALLY wanted to make happen.

This was my original inspiration:

It had both – the fireplace itself was raised up a bit and there was a flat hearth. I’ve always thought both things make it feel more substantial.

But then the more I looked at photos, the more I realized most of the ones I was drawn to may have have had one of those features, but rarely both. Kelly’s gorgeous fireplace had a hearth but the actual fireplace was to the ground (because it’s wood burning):

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Layla’s beautiful fireplace redo had a simple black hearth and another fireplace that was low to the ground:

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Again, their’s was low because there was a cast iron firebox inside initially, but I did like the look.

I finally found a gas insert that had a small hearth and was down low too:

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The more I looked the more I realized maybe a raised insert and big hearth wasn’t the look I was going for. ;) And then as things started to come together I noticed that adding a tiled hearth was going to eat into our family room space even more. I’ve mentioned that the new room will be much bigger, but it will be long and skinny. That width the hearth would take up is valuable space.

And I looked into raising the gas insert but there were two issues – the venting in the back would have to be replaced and it would mean the whole thing would stick out even more. I mean, it’s already a beast. And we’re moving our TV over the fireplace so even another four to five inches in height would make our TV really high. As it is now I think it will be great, but any more and it would be awkward.

So after a little more research I decided to nix both. The added cost and problems weren’t worth it. I felt a ton better about that decision after seeing this gorgeous fireplace redo:

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No hearth and the insert is to the ground – and it’s beautiful.

And when I found this one I saved it to my files and named it “exactly.”:

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This is actually very similar to how ours will look, at least the fireplace and wall part above. I’ve been planning to “sink” the TV in just a bit and this gave me a good idea of how it will look. My plan is that you won’t see that inset part though – the bracket will go inside and the TV will sit over it:

As a reminder, here’s my inspiration for the look of the built ins and fireplace set up:

And this is what they had done as of early last week:

Lots of progress has happened since!

This week I’ll start caulking, filling and priming the entire thing. I still have to figure out what tile I want to use on the surround:

Those are just a few options – the first and third from the left are my favorites but that herringbone looks hard to install – lots of little bitty cuts that I’m not sure I want to attempt. It would look AMAZING though, right?

Anyway, I hope by the end of this week I’ll have the whole thing at least primed. Can’t wait to show you the progress! We’re almost to the point where it’s all up to me – the guys are finishing up the fireplace details today, working on the lighting in the room and then the audio/visual guys are coming to move everything. I’m a little nervous about that – hope it all goes smoothly. Then the floors can be patched and I can get moving on the walls and paint.

So far so good – I’m doing OK with the mess so far. Since there’s not really much left for the contractors to do I can see the light. :) I think we’ll only have another week or so of construction and then the smaller stuff starts.

Do you have a dream fireplace in your head? I’m so excited I get to see mine come to life!!

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How to pick out tile (in the laundry room!)

Hello all! I’m making little bits of progress on a bunch of rooms right now – it’s decorating ADD at it’s finest. But at least there’s (some) progress, right?

I’m SO happy with how our basement laundry room is turning out! It so fun to have a new space to work with, I’m in heaven. And dare I say it – it’s not so bad when I have ROOM to do laundry.

Yep, I said it.

Anyhoo, I actually picked out the tile for this room months and months ago, I think before the room actually had walls. ;) I had always dreamed of this pretty hexagon tile from Lowes in the space:

I wanted something a bit different, something that was fun, but wouldn’t break the bank. And this stuff was perfect. (It’s called American Olean Sausalito tile.) But as time went on (and it was closer to the time of installing it), I got cold feet.

The tile is really thin, and I thought it was supposed to be used only on a backsplash. Even the guys who have been working on the basement were worried about using it.

I was so bummed, because I had planned on this stuff for half a year. :) So I did two things – asked some bloggy friends if they had used it, and went to Lowes to find out more about it.

The first bit of info I learned was from my friend Cassity at Remodelaholic. She told me that typically tile that is made for wall applications (like a backsplash) is white or cream on the back. Tile that is made for the floor is dark or clay colored on the back. Mine was dark on the back!

I had no idea! Good to know, eh?

Then Lowe’s guy showed me indicators on the tile box that helped a ton:

It was a wealth of information! I looked up what the codes mean and found this helpful pdf from Home Depot.

First up – the grade for this tile is a one (the highest quality) and you want to use grade one or two for floors, a three for floors.

The PEI (stands for Porcelain Enamel Institute) is a three – this indicates the tile’s resistance to abrasion. This one is fine for moderate wear and suitable for home use.

The little umbrella icon is for water absorption, which is something you want to think about for a spot like a laundry room! This one falls between low and moderate absorption so it was fine for this space.

Finally, one I didn’t even consider but is nice to know – the C.O.F., which is basically the slip factor. My tile was rated at .65, and anything above .60 exceeds ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) guidelines – which means it’s too not slippery.

I was honestly surprised to see that my pretty little tile passed every test with flying colors!

SOLD! :)

Because I have limited experience with tile, and because the mortar had to be spread as thin as possible to avoid it seeping through all of those grout lines, I didn’t DIY this project.

The room had turned into a second storage room over the past few months, so I did clean it out and get the floors cleaned up:

I went back and forth on an underlayment in here, since the tile was going directly on cement floors. I talked to about four contractor-type peeps and every single one of them said it wasn’t needed. So I didn’t do it, but I’ll let you know in time if that was a good idea or not. ;)

Because I didn’t want to worry about keeping bright white grout lines clean, I used a light gray grout color:

This is the product I picked out (from Lowes) and it’s a sanded grout called warm gray. I love it!!

One thing to consider – one bag was more than enough for the square footage of this room, but obviously those tiles have more than average grout lines. So we needed two bags of the grout to get ‘er done.

I am SO thrilled with the result:

The gray grout will be easier to take care of, and I LOVE how it actually shows off the pretty shapes of the tile. They would be lost with white grout!

After it was grouted and wiped down, I cleaned it well one more time, let it dry for an hour, and used this sealer the guys recommend:

Other sealers I’ve used in the past can’t be applied till about three days after the grout is done. This one can be applied after just an hour. It was the easiest sealant I’ve ever used – I just sprayed it down on the tile, working my way across the room.

The floor will be super wet when you’re done, so work your way out of the room. Let it sit five to ten minutes then just wipe it clean! I got down on my hands and knees with two rags and wiped as I went through the room. It says you can do a second coat 30 minutes later, but I soaked this floor so I didn’t think it was needed:

Isn’t it pretty? It turned out just as I envisioned.

Here’s the after with the tile:

This room already looks SO much different now! I’ve been busy in here and I can’t wait to show you more!

Now I’m psyched to get the bathroom tiled and I think I might try my hand at it. I think. :) I’ve never done floor tile and I’m nervous. I was planning on going light on the floors in there too, but now I’m thinking dark, which I’ll explain soon.

This tile cost more than basic ceramic tile, but I thought for the unique look it wasn’t too bad – the whole room was less than $140. I’ve seen this look for WAY more so I’m thrilled with it!

Have you tried this pretty hexagon tile in your home? Have you ever tiled a floor? Any tips?

P.S. I think I said “grout” 55 times.

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An update on the basement

Hey hey! It’s been awhile since I’ve updated on the basement progress because…well, there hasn’t been much progress. ;)

It kind of pooped out because…WELL. Money doesn’t grow on trees. Drats.

About seven weeks ago we had the drywall put up and mudded. That felt like a HUGE accomplishment. It obviously transformed the space into real rooms. Pretty awesome.

Since then the guys have primed every surface and painted the ceiling. I thought I would be able to do it but really? It would have taken months. They got it done in two days.

When the walls were installed, we had to go ahead with the shower because there was some drywall that had to be installed around it:

Originally I had planned on tiling the whole thing, but an insert was so. much. easier. For me. Because they did installed the insert, and I was going to do the tile. ;) That little area to the right of the shower will be open shelving, so that will be a nice little detail.

The guys came a few weeks ago and installed the trim around the basement steps, which had to be done before carpet:

It was pretty straightforward – just some boards trimmed out on top with quarter round, then baseboards around the landing. (On that wall they had to notch out the board to fit around the steps, but on the other walls the board just fit in next to the steps – much easier.)

A cement wall went up the wall on the stairway and created a little ledge, so the guys did a really nice job of trimming that out:

I hang extra frames for projects in this stairway so they free up storage space. That’s why some of them are empty. :)

The recessed lights have been finished out with their cans, and it made a HUGE difference! I love how much light we have down there, and that everything is on different switches:

We went with a lightly textured ceiling just like upstairs. I love the look of flat ceilings, but especially in the basement where there may be a need to repair it eventually (to get to wiring, plumbing, etc.), I wanted to go with something that would be easily patched and textured again.

We’ve only purchased a couple light fixtures so far, and the guys installed them for free:

I showed you some of the options here and I actually went with what was my third choice for this spot! When I went back to purchase the lights I just loved the industrial look of these and the price tag. I got them at Lowe’s – I’m not sure what they’re called but I’ve seen them at every Lowe’s I’ve looked. (Hold the phone, I found them online here.)

This spot will eventually have cabinets below with a sink:

That area will probably be the last thing we do in the basement, as far as finishing it goes. But I have big plans for this wall!

I envision a wall of tile, something like this maybe:

(source)

Or this. I looove this:

I’m bummed because this had no source when I pinned it. Any idea where I can get it? I’m sure it’s mad expensive.

There won’t be any upper cabinets on that wall, just lowers. But I may do some floating shelves. I’ll just have to see how it comes together and what kind of storage we need. It will be just be a very small snack/drink area, so eventually we hope to have a small fridge and maybe a microwave down there too.

So FUN!

But like I said, that’s WAY down the line. I just like to plan ahead. ;)

I had hoped to have carpet installed next, and then have everything trimmed out after that – I figured we could live without trim and doors for quite a while. And I was going to wait to do the tile in two rooms later as well. But then the guys told me the tile and the trim should really be done before the carpet so that basically shot my entire plan.

Sooo now, we are hoping to get at least the trim done next month, and the carpet done by July. And here a couple months ago I thought we’d be done early – the original plan was to be done by July, and then I thought it may be June. Now it will probably be August. Or later. Probably later. Dangah.

But there is still plenty that I can do and I started tonight. At 9 p.m. No better time, right? I’ve had the paint for the basement for awhile, and I finally bit the bullet and started painting.

I put on my paint shirt:

I don’t wipe my hands on rags or paper towels, I use this shirt. ;) It has every paint color in our house on it. I’ve had it since the day we moved in. I will never get rid of it. Someday it will be framed. ;)

So anyhoo, I went after it and because there is no trim and no carpet, it’s going REALLY fast. I only stopped to write this post and it was hard to walk away. I could have easily gotten the half of the whole family/playroom area done tonight.

I’ll talk to you more about the paint soon, but for now I’ll tell you that it’s a Benjamin Moore color called Marina Gray that I had mixed at Sherwin Williams:

I had it lightened 25 percent because I was worried it would be too dark. And up till I painted I was still worried about that, but I LOVE IT. It is a lovely color and I’m really excited about it. It went on like buttah too.

I’m also excited that I got it during a sale, with a coupon so I spent less on SW paint than I would have at the hardware store. Boo. yah.

So there you go, the latest basement update. I know you’ve been waiting, practically beside yourself because you were so anxious to hear more about it. You can relax now that you know. ;)

The plan now is to finish painting then install baseboards in the whole basement. I’ll bring the saw down there and that should go pretty quick. (Famous last words.) I figure by the time I’m done with all that (I am not putting baseboards up near doorways till they install those), we’ll be able to afford to inch forward a little more.

It’s so hard to be patient, but at least I’ve got plenty to keep me busy while I wait. That's a good thing. Right?!

So have you seen any cool tile that would look good on the bar/kitchenette wall? Any idea where I can find that awesome quatrefoil tile?

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One Day...

"One day I will have a house with Ann Sacks tile" has appeared on this blog before. I would like to add to that wish. Soooo.... One day I will have a house with a master bath that includes Michael S. Smith for Ann Sacks tile. Has a certain ring doesn't it?

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Have I Mentioned...

I love tile?Yep, love it.
Would love to see this in person...
Next week I will be back from our getaway! In the mean time I hope you all have had a wonderful week!

Images Artistic Tile

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