Family room reveal!

OK. I’m done. I can’t even believe it!! The family room expansion/renovation is DONE. GoodNESS, I worked my butt off on this room! I will go into a bigger background recap later, but long story short is that we wanted to add on to the back of our house, decided against it when we got the quotes (choke) and then decided to knock down a wall instead.

That wall was the one between the family room and my office, the one with the corner fireplace and the wall to the left:

Our original expansion plans were just to move out from that window wall and make the back part of the house more of a sunroom to extend the family room. We were never going to touch that office wall because I really wanted to keep my office. Turns out I don’t even miss, not at all. Isn’t that funny? It was a BEAUTIFUL room but no one ever saw it anyway! Except you guys, ha!

When my mind started working and the thought that taking down this wall might work, I sent this “real life” shot from my phone to two realtor friends to see what they thought. This really shows you a better angle:

The area to the left is our walk way from the mud room and garage and is where we had the TV. We reconfigured the space like this years back and it did help – but I didn’t like the corner fireplace and didn’t like that the room had different focal points.

It’s funny because I look at that photo and we had a much wider space when it was like that. But now, it’s SO MUCH BETTER because the family room is bigger and the kitchen doubled in size as well.

The space is long and skinny – we didn’t get any additional width to the room at all. In fact it’s skinnier now because everything is situated towards the back of the house. But we absolutely positively love it:

From the day we took down the wall we both said – it was supposed to be like this from the start. Actually every single change we’ve made in this whole great room (moving the kitchen table, switching out the doors, all of it) we’ve said the same every time. It should have been like this all along.

Taking down that wall brought in an insane amount of natural light – we gained two windows from the office. We also added six new overhead lights to the space:

The focal point of the room is now the grand fireplace and built ins:

We had to built it into the room to accommodate the size of the gas insert – we dealt with that by building out the entire thing and adding storage for electronics and all kinds of other stuff.

I went dramatic and gray with the whole thing and I adore it:

I am debating moving the rug down so it’s centered on the fireplace. I like how the sectional sits on it now though – if I move it the sectional will sit half on and half off.

To get an idea of how this renovation opened up the space – the old wall went right down the middle of the new fireplace. Because of the angle of the old fireplace we had about two feet, then windows. There was nowhere else to put furniture but right in front of that double window.

I can’t believe that our family room used to go that far into the kitchen! It actually went almost to the right side of that étagère:

Crazy! The final frontier in this renovation is the double doors that will take the place of that window – it was supposed to happen last week but we had a hiccup. :) More on that soon! (And those drapes will be replaced with some that match the other side of the room soon. These are up for privacy now.)

There are little things we noticed right away when we started this process. First, the animals LOVE IT. They are in this space way more than before. It’s weird. Secondly, we love that there’s one focal point in the space. I used to hate TVs over fireplaces but I’m actually falling in love with the look (and I really disliked it!). There’s no competition for your attention, it’s clean and makes the space feel even bigger. Finally, our view in here is SO much better.

I love love LOVE to sit down on this sofa during the day:

Everything is oriented to the outside. Before our view from the sofa was the front door and the TV. Now’s all the light and the trees and our pretty deck and patio. I absolutely LOVE that. It’s completely changed how this room feels.

We have more seating in the room now too – the chair to the right is my new “office.” It’s a super cozy spot! The newly painted dresser and the built in to the left of the TV hold my office supplies:

We get so much light in here now it’s hard to get good shots! I’ll take that problem any day. The natural light is why I knew the space could take the darker pieces. I love how they add some drama.

I have a lot of favorite spots in this space and this is one of them. That spool chair was the only furniture purchase for this room and I ADORE it:

I looked for months for the perfect chair and found it a few weeks ago at HomeGoods. It is spectacular. :)

See? Spectacular. And incredibly comfy too!

I moved what used to be used as a sofa table to the wall where the TV was before:

Since the sectional is floating in the middle of the room the dresser I had on this wall felt too deep. This table is perfect since it’s nice and skinny.

The big mirror was a happy accident – I leaned it up there to see how it felt and it makes the room feel even brighter – when I’ve taken it down to paint behind it there’s a noticeable difference in the room:

I thought this walkway would feel tight but it’s actually perfect:

Before the walkway was right in front of the TV and again – this just feels “right.” I told you we keep saying that! It’s how it always should have been. :)

And finally, this is my view as I sit and write:

That view will look even better when the kitchen renovation starts…next year…a long time from now…cause Mama needs a break. :)

I still want to share more details and photos of the space, some before and afters and all of the sources as well – I will share those very, very soon!

For now I think I’ll join him:

If you have any questions about anything let me know and I’ll be sure to address it!

THANK YOU for coming along for the ride! I don’t think I’ve ever worked harder on a space but not sure I’ve ever been prouder of a space either. :)

$13 planked wall (Finished fireplace!)

Hello all! Wow, what a full weekend! My husband was out of town so the kiddo and I played hard all day Saturday – all kinds of fall goodness. Sunday I worked my tail off getting the fireplace finished up, finally! It’s DONE!

I had a couple things left to do to get it done – I had already finished up the wall treatment above the fireplace and I’m really pleased with how it came together. I knew all along I wanted to plank the top wall, but I wanted to do it a little differently than I did last time. I wanted the planks to be much wider than the standard mdf or pine I usually use. So I went straight for the underlayment at the hardware store:

This is the stuff used under flooring and it’s SUPER cheap. I paid $13 for a big sheet. The nice guy at Lowe’s cut it down into strips for me – each one just over five inches wide.

The edges needed to be sanded down just a little bit – it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be though. Then I gave them two coats of my Peppercorn color and started the process of hanging:

My wall is a little over 50 inches tall so I did some figuring to determine the width of each plank – I knew I was going to put some space between each one so I ended up with the five+ size. You can use anything you want as a spacer – I had my brad nails on hand so used those.

By the way, I painted the wall the gray color first – this is important if you’re going to leave any space between your boards.

I moved my “spacers” down each plank as I nailed them in, checking for level while I did it:

This install went really fast – the front part anyway. The only parts that took some time were around the outlet:

I used my jigsaw to cut out the spot for it. This wood is so thin I could have just scored it and broken it off really:

You can see I’m no ace at the jigsaw. ;) Good thing nobody will ever see it.

I painted right over the outlet and the cover:

The sides took some time as well just because I needed so many pieces. These were installed the same way:

Because I needed so many boards that were the exact same size I just used my original as a guide to cut them all out:

I just lay it on top of the board, mark the line, cut, lay it down again, cut…it saves time instead of measuring every single piece.

You can see here how skinny this wood is – exactly what I was looking for!:

The corners didn’t need to be perfect because I covered those with some corner molding.

I had finished all that up last week but still needed to touch up some spots. I also put one final coat on the entire fireplace – it needed three coats of the Peppercorn all together.

Here’s that same corner with the trim covering up those rough edges:

I haven’t even filled the holes on the wall yet and I don’t think I will – they add a little rustic flair that keeps this area from getting too stuffy. That’s my excuse anyway. :)

When I designed this huge fireplace I knew the TV was going to have to go above. Not my first choice but it was the only way to make the layout work. So I had the guys make an inset in the middle of that upper wall for the TV to sit into:

We have it on a bracket that moves any direction – but when we push it back in you can’t see any cords at all. I LOVE that. Love love love:

I cannot believe this thing is finally done! I’m absolutely head over heels for all of it!:

I went out of my comfort zone painting it that dark gray but I LOVE it. It feels good to branch out every once and a while. :)

We get such good light in here now the room can take it:

I haven’t really decorated it yet – this is stuff I’ve had up here and I’m not sure it will stay. I’m not sure if I’ll keep the long box up there or not:

The mantel is so deep -- my possibilities are endless! I just want to play around with some things to see what works. For now it’s simple and I like it.

I had some gold candle sconces from Target to hang on either side of the TV but when we held them up last night both my husband and I thought they didn’t look right. It looked too busy. I think I’d still like to try something on either side perhaps, but they will need to be long and skinny:

The crown still needs to be painted and finished up there…I’ll tackle that all at once around the room.

If you remember we had to build the fireplace out this far because otherwise we would’ve had to get a permit to build a “doghouse” off the back of the house for it. That would have added quite a bit of time and lots of money so we went with this. It ended up working GREAT because we now have extra storage and a spot for the TV components on the sides:

A few of you asked and YES the remotes work through that metal sheeting! I LOVE that I have all kinds of junk in those cabinets right now and you can’t even tell. Buwhahaha. :)

We were going to hold off on any more construction till next year…but then I quickly realized I just wanted to get it all over with. So that window on the right will be double doors soon (I’m hoping within a month) and the bay window in the kitchen will get a makeover too. So I haven’t continued the molding in that area or painted anything – there’s no point till after we get that done.

But the big beast in the room is DONE!! It took me nearly a month!:

I’m SO pleased with it. Now onto the smaller jobs in this room to get it finished up – paint, molding fixes, door trim, more paint and then some final decorating touches. This is taking waaaay longer than I thought it would but it’s been a pleasure along the way. :) Thanks for coming along with me, as always.

To see more about the dark gray color, go here.
To see how I cut the inserts out of the doors and what I used to cover them, go here.
For a tutorial on installing a tile fireplace surround, go here.
For tips on how to clean the glass on a gas fireplace visit here and more tips on sprucing up your fireplace here.

Tiling a fireplace surround

HELLO! Sorry for such a late post today – I completely forgot I was supposed to help at my son’s school this morning so my day has been a bit behind. ;) This is a big post but I still wanted to share it with you today because I’m SO thrilled with how it turned out.

I finally finished up the tile around the fireplace and I luurvvvvve it. Yep, I brought out the lurve for this one. I went with the herringbone tile because a.) I loved it and it was the one that had my heart as soon as I saw it b.) I realized that it wasn’t going to be as hard as I thought to install and c.) my husband picked it immediately between that and the regular marble subway tile.

SO. I’ve shown you how I tiled the surround years ago, but this is a refresher with a little more detail. That time I didn’t need to grout so this tutorial includes that step. I started by finding the middle of the actual fireplace – not the surround but the firebox:

This was because the two sides beside the box aren’t exactly the same size. So I wanted everything centered on the firebox part.

I borrowed a tile saw from the guys that do work on our house occasionally (they’ve let me borrow it a couple times and it’s a big money saver). I’ve used it before and actually quite love this tool. It looks scary but it’s not hard to use at all. For this marble tile I made my measurements and used a pencil to mark where I needed to cut:

Pencil is the only thing that would leave a decent mark. Before you do any cutting be sure to check your mark against the saw:

Like double and triple check! The saw makes it easy to line everything up – just make sure all the sides are flush against the panel that the tile lays on and then check your line one more time before you start cutting.

The tile saw must have a water source – usually a bucket that the pump sits in underneath that runs the water through the machine. Make sure that water is running through before you start cutting:

Now, tile on the mesh is easy to cut because you’re taking care of such a big piece at a time – but there are some tricks to it that I learned along the way. First of all, GO SLOW. The marble is very soft and will easily chip. You’ll want to hold onto the panel that the tile sits on and control it as it goes through – otherwise the saw will want to push it through really fast.

It’s not hard – you just have to be patient. I found that when I was cutting the tile didn’t cut as cleanly on the right side, but the left side was usually a better cut. So I made sure to turn my tile accordingly to get a clean cut each time. Does that make sense? I wanted the “good” side on the left.

Also, because the tile is so soft and the pieces on the mesh are so small, I found it helpful to lay something on top of them as I pushed them through:

If you can apply a little pressure as it goes through it keeps the tiles from moving around as the saw cuts them. (WATCH where your hands are!) It was really helpful when it came to the first and last piece along the mesh.

Bottom line though – very few of my cuts were perfect. I realized very quickly that it was going to be next to impossible to get perfectly perfect cuts on every one. Which doesn’t bother me – it adds to the “character.”  ;) I have a LOT of character in this house.

I would cut a piece or two and then get them up on the surround – I used this premixed adhesive to do so:

I’ve tiled a few times and the first time I mixed the thinset and grout myself – I didn’t care for it. It’s messy and a pain in the butt, at least to me. Buying it premixed and ready to go costs a little more but was SO worth it.

You’ll want a notched trowel to spread it on. I don’t feel like I’m ever good at this part:

I think I use too much – but I’d rather have too much than too little. Spread it as evenly as you can and make sure to get the edges: 

Then just push the tile on there and smoosh it around. I didn’t use spacers at all and I didn’t need to do anything to hold the tile up as I went – the thinset grabs it pretty quick and within a few minutes it starts to set. Just adjust it if it starts to move down at all. Also, if the thinset comes up between the tiles you can just use a toothpick to clean it out. Even with my laying it on thick I didn’t have to do that much.

I had the gas line run to the  front of the surround when we moved the fireplace so I had to work around that spot – you can just unscrew that metal valve so you know what pieces need to be cut:

I thought that area was going to be a lot harder than it was. If a piece was in the way I just took it off the mesh backing and then cut it by itself. You can also get little nippers that will cut smaller pieces like this easily.

When you’re done you just “butter” the back of that individual piece with the thinset and then stick it on. I had quite a few pieces that didn’t cut great and I would just take them off the mesh and then find/cut a better one for that spot and stick it on. You never know when it’s done. :)

I let it sit for a day or two – I can’t remember how long really but the container will tell you how long. Then it was time to grout – which is usually my least favorite part. It’s MESSY so be prepared for that.

I taped off the wood around the surround:

And then covered the actual fireplace with some tape and a trash bag:

I let the trash bag come out to the floor so it caught most of the grout that fell in that area – it made for quick clean up too.

Again, I used premixed grout:

I picked a color called Delorean Gray – you get more color options when you mix it yourself but I was going for this anyway.

So usually if your grout lines are more than 1/8 inch you’ll want to use sanded grout. If they are less you can use unsanded. Most of mine were 1/8 – but some were less, some were more so I used sanded grout.

The only thing is, as I mentioned, marble is SOFT. So there are some issues with the sanded grout that I’ll touch on in a minute.

You use a float tool to apply the grout – I found it easier to get it out with my little scraper: 

And then apply it to the float:

In my opinion there’s no right or wrong way to do this part – just do what you need to do to get it all in there:

Just smoosh (lots of smooshing) it in there as much as you can, making sure to get the edges. I had a gap between the fireplace and the tile that I grouted too (that’s why there’s painters tape there).

Then as soon as you can start wiping it all down with a big sponge and a bucket of water. This part always freaks me out because it feels like the grout isn’t going to come off. But just keep at it – wet sponge, wipe, rinse the sponge, repeat:

So here’s where the problems with sanded grout come in with this tile – first of all because the tile is so soft the sand kind of wears down the sides of the tile a bit. There’s not much you can do about it though – and honestly between the float and the sponge I think you’d get some of that anyway, even with nonsanded grout. I actually like the “worn” look it gives them. Again with that character. ;)

And then the grout kind of etches into the tile as you can see here:

It didn’t do it on all of them, but I did have to wipe down a bunch individually. I just used a wet rag:

After that if any had some left I used a (very clean) razor to get any other residue off:

If you were using this on a backsplash where it would be seen closer I’d probably use the non sanded grout – but because I had some bigger areas to fill I’m glad I used the sanded on the surround.

After the grout dried I ran a bead of grout around the edges (it comes in a tube, same color) to make all of my not perfect cuts (mostly) disappear. Character! :)

And we now have a gorgeous fireplace surround that I’m obsessed with:

I went back and forth between gray and white grout and I’m so glad I went gray – it really makes the design pop even more. I LOVE IT.

I love all the colors in the marble too – white, gray and a lot of a tans as well – they tie in perfectly with the new wall color in this room and those tan colors keep it from feeling too cold:

I love how the the tile looks with the gray paint and the metal doors on the built ins. And I love that they catch the light and almost shimmer:

Next up – tackling the wall above the fireplace! It will be the same gray color and will get a treatment. I hope to get that started and maybe done this weekend. And then everything will get one more coat of paint.

But for now I’m thrilled with the progress so far!!:

I hope I made some sense of the tiling process – if you have any questions let me know! It’s not hard at all, it just takes some patience.

Have you attempted a tiling job? Did you find it hard? A small spot like a fireplace surround is a great place to start! Have a great weekend!