Category: Home

I’ve been bursting to share this project with you guys! This all began months ago, flipping through design books and swooning over incredible fireplaces. Staring at the decorative fireplace in our living room I couldn’t help feeling like it hadn’t quite reached its full potential. And so my little dream of a fireplace makeover began. And also where The Home Depot came in. I was thrilled to sign on to partner with them on this project since they’ve always been our go to source for home DIY projects throughout the years. For the complete play by play of how this whole thing miraculously came together (just $300, a few splinters and a swear word or two along the way…) – visit my full post on The Home Depot blog.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

And just for fun – a few things we learned along the way. In case you’re inspired to tackle your own rental-friendly DIY fireplace makeover (or really any other home project your heart desires).

THINGS WE LEARNED:

1. When all else fails – search for a YouTube video or sand it down a bit more. Ha.
2. Measure twice (or three.. or four times), cut once. Something my Dad (the ultimate DIY-er) ingrained in me very early on. I can’t tell you how many times we checked measurements on trim for this and thankfully never made a mistake in cutting.
3. Working with brick (and old apartment floors!) is tricky since you’ll never get a perfectly level surface or straight edge. Instead of letting it drive you crazy – make friends with shims. There’s a couple of them hidden throughout this fireplace.
4. A lot of people find DIY home projects with their partner to be a recipe for disaster. We’ve found having a really clear plan (lots of lists and sketches), talking through each step before we begin and encouraging each other when the other starts to lose hope (somewhere in hour 35 I promise it will happen) goes a long way.
5. Most importantly – don’t let the fact that you’re a renter stop you from maximizing your home’s potential. Sure, we likely won’t live here forever so someday we’ll have to leave this fireplace behind and technically we invested time and money into someone else’s place. But in the meantime? It’s ours and I have a smile on my face every single time I walk in the door and see this fireplace. Totally worth it in my opinion. Same goes for bothering to paint the walls in a rental, switch out a light fixture or upgrade drawer pulls. The littlest changes can have the greatest impact and make your time (however fleeting) in a rental infinitely more enjoyable.

Thank you to The Home Depot for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions are my own.

Ever since the Entryway reveal (full post here) I’ve been itching to tackle another home project. Since this is more of a slow burn rather than a marathon (meaning I want to carefully finish each room exactly how I want it instead of racing to finish just so I can share here or be ‘done’), I figured in the meantime I’d share a little bit more about what I’m thinking of next and things that are in the pipeline for the apartment.

Kitchen: 

The obvious constraint here is that it’s a rental, meaning the cabinets and the countertop have to remain as is. But to counteract the slightly off-white counters I painted the backsplash area the same deep navy as the entryway and love how it made the whole area seem richer. I’m considering updating the drawer and cabinet pulls and the most major project is potentially adding a faux backsplash tile behind the stove. Thinking this would be tiles adhered to plywood and then attached to the wall? Something fairly non-invasive. Still scheming here but the thought of adding a pop of pattern really tempts me. Otherwise, on the hunt for a cool wall clock or piece of art to anchor the area and maybe a small rug.

Bedroom: This area is definitely a work in progress. So far the standout is this custom blue velvet headboard that my parents (and Grandmother! Hi Mom-Mom!) and I put together the last time I was home in PA. I had fallen in love with the fabric (from Calico Corners – where my Mom works) but wanted to avoid the cost of custom upholstery and didn’t want to DIY from scratch – so I purchased this inexpensive headboard from Wayfair and then simply added batting and staple gunned this fabric around it to cover. Voila!

I’m still in desperate need of small nightstand/side tables and sconces to go above and am really wanting to wallpaper the wall behind the bed as a major accent. Since, again, it’s a rental I’d need to get the owner to approve that or go the removable route. Although I can’t find any I love quite as much as this paper from Anthropologie. It feels like something you’d see in a boutique hotel somewhere near a beach – which is essentially exactly what I want the bedroom to feel like. An idyllic escape and endless summer.

Living Room: This area has probably made the least progress but I’ve got big plans. That involve some bigger ticket purchases like a couch and arm chair, finding a piece of large scale art that I love and swapping a rather clunky large bookcase for something like a console and open shelves that feel visually lighter and a fireplace renovation. Remember those kitchen tiles I mentioned? I want to build a faux hearth in front of the brick fireplace to expand it. Hoping by year’s end I’ve got these things going.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed with everything I want to do around here, but alas – Rome wasn’t built in a day. And neither is a stylish small apartment. Here’s to crossing off one thing at a time!