Our DIY brick fireplace makeover began with building a brick hearth from scratch and ended with a wood beam mantle and a shiplap accent wall. The final step in this complete fireplace makeover project, however, is the paint! We knew from the beginning we wanted the brick to be white to make the space as bright as possible. After debating on whitewash, German smear, and solid paint, we decided that solid white paint in the same color as the shiplap would look the best in this space and be the easiest option. No need for fancy techniques or special paint, simply use whatever paint you like for this DIY with…

A brick fireplace hearth has always been on the top of my wish list for our home. There is something about the hand built nature of a large brick fireplace hearth that holds that old time farmhouse charm that you just don’t see in today’s small, builder-grade, simple gas fireplace mantles. We have tried everything to update our builder-grade fireplace, from simply painting it white to adding a larger wood mantle and even adding a shiplap accent wall. While those updates definitely improved the look of our small and unimpressive fireplace, it just didn’t fulfill our dream of a beautiful and grand brick fireplace hearth. So we finally decided to…

After we completed our DIY horizontal privacy fence and after selecting the perfect neutral stain color we finally began staining our fence. We have stained and painted many things over the years but this was our first attempt at staining a fence. Through plenty of research and planning we came up with the easiest way to stain our new fence that would be super fast and consistent. Here is how we stained our DIY horizontal privacy fence the fast and easy way. Step 1 – Clean the Fence If your staining an old fence or even a fence that has had a chance to weather at all, you will need…

We recently completed our DIY horizontal privacy fence project, and set out to select the perfect neutral stain color to complete it. The privacy fence is super close to our house and can be seen out of every window, so it was important for us to choose a color that would look nice through the windows without looking like a big, bold wall. I also needed to color to take away the orangy tint that natural cedar boards show, so that it would look nice with our grey, white, and brown color scheme in our house, but still look nice with the existing fence color (which is an unfortunate red…