Transforming Your Fireplace in a Weekend: Part 3

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Ok, technically we finished the built-ins the weekend following the brick and mantle transformation, but since it kind of all goes together I’m including it in this series. Plus, not all fireplaces have built-ins, so the first two parts were finished in one weekend. 🙂

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Transforming the Built-Ins

These built-ins were a labor of love let me tell ya! They got a coat of primer first followed by THREE COATS of paint. My hubby did the first three coats (primer + two coats of paint) and then asked me to do the final coat because he was tired of looking at those shelves! If we had to do it over we would’ve primed twice and then hopefully just needed one coat of paint. But ya live and learn! The wood was really dark so it took a lot to cover it up.

Here’s what it looked like after priming:

And after a couple of coats:

Finishing Touches

After it was all painted we noticed the gaps between the brick and the wood and also in the corner of the shelves so we got some paintable white caulk and filled everything in so it would give it a finished look.

Before:

After:

The final touch was the new knobs! I love shopping for knobs-it’s like jewelry for an outfit-it completes it! These knobs were at Hobby Lobby and they were on sale for half off!

I already had these blue vases and they were the inspiration for the knobs.

And now for the final reveal…drum roll please…TA DA!

We love how it turned out! The room is so much brighter! I can’t wait to decorate the shelves but right now they’re holding all of our books until we get the office done.

UPDATE: After painting the bookshelves, we filled them with books. Over time the books stuck to the paint and peeled it off which was really frustrating! SO. They got another fresh coat of paint with Valspar’s furniture paint (read about this awesome paint here) and then we used Valspar’s Wax finish as a top coat. Now the books don’t stick and the finish is beautiful!

Thanks for checking out my blog! For part 1 of this series go here and for part 2 go here!

You might also be interested in:

Built-in Hutch Makeover
Wet Bar Makeover Reveal
1970s Guest Bathroom Gets a Makeover!

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