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Bringing New Life to a Stove, Mantel
and Hearth
by Stephie McCarthy
This is the room at the old house where we
get away from demolition and sawdust, with
a feature wall, carved mantel and gas stove.
But it didn't start out this pretty!
The room was pink and lime green. The fireplace was bricked
with grimey concrete patches. But we saw the potential
and added this cute gas stove from Harbor Freight.
This type of stove needs no vent because it's efficient with fuel.
They can be very inexpensive, and come in charming styles.
We kept ours safe while we changed the pink walls to
a creamy butter color.
On the left was the lime green mantel that almost fit …
now we've got it looking good.
We tried this heavier mantel, but it was a poor fit
and
got moved into storage to be used later in the kitchen.
We mixed this raw honey color from leftover paints
and boosted the mantel on either side with concrete
pavers from HomeDepot to give room for the
stove beneath. The pavers are about 11" x 14".
We used four all together, two on each side.
These were early days before we knew about chalk paint.
This paint transformation was done with latex.
We used ordinary craft paints to embellish the carvings
in turquoise and gold. The trick was to be random with
the turquoise, as long as it was on the carved areas.
Here's a closeup of how we boosted the mantel with
concrete pavers. You can make anything work, if you try.
We staggered these so that the bottom one was out
by about an inch and the top was against the wall.
These were dull concrete pavers that we transformed
with ordinary wood stain.
Restoring the Brick Hearth
Yes! Wood stain on concrete, mortar and brick … a trick
we learned on a concrete and hypertufa forum, long ago.
Be sure to test wood stains in an obscure area to see
how it will look on your bricks. They can be very unique.
We colored the grout as well. You could use
white chalk paint for grout, but we prefer brown.
Now these bricks are so easy to clean. Wood stain
brought back the life and glow!
Painting the Gas Stove
StoveBright paint was a great find! Just look at all those
magical colors. Imagine a stove in Green Illusion or Copper!
You can paint so many things with StoveBright. It
is a quality paint with great coverage in a spray
can.
You can also find it in brush-on liquid.
After masking the firebox and brass handle, we had the flat
black finish converted to a warm chocolate shade in no time!
It was a bit scary at first, we admit. But the spray was so
smooth and rich, we will definitely find other uses for
these marvelous colors.
The gold embellishments were equally easy to do. We applied it
with a small, disposable brush. The heat of the flame has
never discolored the gold finish. Beautiful golden warmth!
For your most important projects, be sure and use a
very good gold paint (not acrylic) like Liquid Leaf
and you'll be very happy with the results.
Happiness is a place, no matter how small, where you can
express yourself, relax, and feel restored.
Warmth makes all the difference!
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