Before & After: The Living Room

First, I apologize for the zero quality of the before pics....they are pictures of prints that were apparently printed without full ink tanks. But, I suppose the lack of clarity helps protect the original home owner's belongings from being identified!

The Waaay Before:

The After:

Oh, just ignore the functional - but no so pleasing to the eye - recliner in the corner. I'm still working on Don....trying to convince him that the Eames is what we need. After all, how could you go wrong with a piece that's rightfully made it's way into the MoMA in New York!?!?

The biggest improvement is definitely the fireplace. The original brick had already been painted white, but I wasn't going for that look in this particular room.

First, I painted the (nasty) brass surround with a black high heat paint. Almost could have stopped there...(almost!).

Next we built up and covered up the brick (thank you MDF!) and beefed up the mantle with trim. The hearth was green tile, which I painted again with the high heat black paint, and again built up the lower part of the hearth with MDF and trimmed it up with baseboard.

More to come!