You all probably remember when we took our fireplace from dated to dashing with a couple coats of paint. This weekend, we got one step closer to completing the fireplace facelift by revamping the metal firebox cover.
Here’s a quick trip down memory lane for those of you who may have missed the progression so far.
The day we bought our house (dark brown brick and brassy brassy firebox cover):
Painted and decorated for Christmas (clean crisp white paint, minus the air intake grates and firebox cover):
You can see how we added the little square grates back on the fireplace after we painted them white to match in the edge of this photo:
And finally, here’s the beast with the firebox grate added back on, after a shiny new coat of rubbed bronze spray paint!
And the close up shot:
Here’s a quick run-down on how we did it. First, we pulled out the old brassy cover and I started sanding the visible edges.
Then I took the side pieces off so I could slide out the glass doors for cleaning and sanding.
Take a look at what a little soap and elbow grease can do to a sooty glass door! The one on the top is before cleaning and the bottom one was after I scrubbed both sides of the glass.
After I sanded and wiped down all the pieces, I carefully taped over any areas (including the glass in the doors) that I didn’t want to paint.
Have I introduced you to my best friend when it comes to spray painting yet? It’s this little guy. Say goodbye to sore index fingers forever!
This is how the grate looked after a couple coats of spray paint.
Then Viola! I removed the paper to reveal clean paint lines…
… and put that puppy together!
Not bad, eh? The last step was to carry the grate inside and have Stephen attach it with two hooks to the back side of the brick.
And here’s the finished product!
I am so glad we decided to fix up the old fireplace grate instead of buying a new one. We priced a few at Lowe’s before going this route and they were going to cost over $200! Our version cost us only $5 in spray paint and a few hours outside on a gorgeous Sunday and fits our fireplace perfectly. What do you think?
(By the way, don’t worry. I plan on telling you all about the colored glass bottles on our mantle soon. We have a semi-makeover going on in our living room as we speak!)
I’m linking to this project at the DIY Show Off Project Parade and Frugal Friday at the Shabby Nest. You should definitely go check out all the other great DIY projects!
