Well, I’m back. Sweden was beyond amazing. It was everything I had hoped for. I really needed a whole other week there. I’ll be sharing about our trip in the next week as we get unpacked and caught up around here.

I’m looking for inspiration for our soon to be new faux fireplace. This is the little project that we’ve been tackling the last week or so. At the end of last Winter, we noticed that our wood pellet stove in our living room was not working very well. It wasn’t the the prettiest fireplace insert, but I kept it because it provided a lot of warmth for our little home. We actually ran this little guy and didn’t run our heater too much. It kept the living area warm and then we just slept with lots of blankets in the bedrooms. But, sadly it really is dead now and the cost to replace it or even fix it was just out of our budget. So, I decided that it just needed to be taken out.

Well, if you own an older home, you know that this is definitely opening a big old can of worms. Turns out that there isn’t a subfloor under the stove and now a huge whole in the wall to the outside. And the tile in front needs to be replaced. But, no turning back now.

So, we started by framing in the fireplace cavity with 2 by 4’s. We needed to have something to attach everything to.  Then we added some insulation and a plywood floor and walls. It was an awkward space to work in and definitely a team effort. There’s an old gas line that had to be worked around, but when it’s all painted, I don’t think it will be a big deal.

Now for the paint color. I kind of want to paint it white so that it’s bright and airy. But, then painting it black or dark grey might be more traditional. I’m torn. And another idea is to paint it a fun color, like kelly green. Do you have any thoughts on a color choice? We’ll talk later about replacing the tile, I’d love your input and help there as well. I’m leaning towards hexagon marble tiles, but I might temporarily just paint them for now.

Taking it out gave us a lot more of the room back and I think I’ll have fun decorating this little space with logs and other cute things. It might not provide an actual heat to the room anymore, but I think it will still give the room a warm cozy feel.