Bad news – We had to completely tear down our leaking 20 year old brick chimney. Big bucks $$$$$. Who knew that chimneys could be so expensive?

Good news – Since I had to get a new chimney it was an opportunity to do a fireplace makeover!! 🙂

Here is the “before” picture of the fireplace and bookcases that my talented husband built.

I wanted a more contemporary look and wanted to lighten up the room so we decided to paint the bookcases. This was a really tough decision because I knew that once they were painted I could never go back. We eliminated the arches for clean, more contemporary lines. I really love the look of stone so I decided on this beautiful stone blend.

I also wanted a reclaimed wood mantel so we scoured architectural salvage places and found the perfect old hand hewn barn beam.

Here is the final completed project.

It was a long, messy haul but I couldn’t be happier with the results! To complete the clean, light, more contemporary look I tried to be very strategic and selective when decorating the shelves and tried not to overload them. This was hard because as a collector and vintage Etsy shop proprietor I had to resist the urge to display all of my finds! A lot of the fun items that used to be displayed on these shelves will be finding a new home when they are listed on my Etsy site Lizzie Tish Vintage.

Leave me a comment. I’d love to hear what you think 🙂