A fireplace should be the focus of a cozy family room

 

Fire Place That feels the room Up

When Tim saw this house he feel in love.  mostly because of the view and the massive shop/garage detached outback.  I needed more convincing, in fact I threw two or three hissy fits because I wanted to build.  But I did love the layout and the area so I conceded on a few conditions.  I could move the fireplace and do build-ins on the sides and that I could overhaul the laundry room.  I also made him promise I could get a new dining set.  But alas I kind of knew what would happen.  Since we moved quickly on this house and we had not put our house up for sell until we found it.  We had not sold our house when we moved it.  My amazing brother Greg who is Owner of RanLife was somehow able to qualify us for both houses but the loan was a bit of a stretch.  And was only going to happen if we came up with more cash.  That's right my spending money.  So the fireplace and laundry would have to wait.  Forget the dining table that just wasn't going to happen.  So after our house sold in march I was on the phone getting bids for the fireplace, running scared that we would spend our petty cash before my projects were done.

 So here is the finished product but wait until you see the before pictures.  Yes yellow of course there is was no other paint color 12 years ago right?  And in this enormous room they chose to put the fireplace in the corner.  It was truly awkward and squatty.  So we took it out, decided it was worth the money to get a new bigger fireplace.  We will be putting the other downstairs, that room is awful right now.  Payton at alpine fireplaces was fantastic to deal with.  And our neighbor an awesome cabinet maker made the mantel (which I adore) and the shelves and cabinets.  To save on costs and because we wanted that middle panel to move up to reveal our TV my amazing husband did the top over the mantel.  Cutting the finish work there from $3000 to about $200

Ugh,  I can remember feeling confused in this room which way do I sit.  20+ft ceilings and they just make a shelf out of the silly small fireplace.   You can see my attempt at decor, failing bitterly

Here I am trying out a million shades of Grey.  

 We settled on Revere Pewter.  but I have since cased the windows I will have to post again when that is complete