I was so excited about having a real wood burning fireplace for a few reasons. In the winter we can have that real fire smell and watch the fire. And in the summer, I’m not at the mercy of dusty pretend gas logs. I can make it look pretty!!! Here I have some stumps in the fireplace, just for fun. Sadly they are tables that we need to use next to our sofa but we have so many stumps around here, I can always make more. Here’s more about stump tables. Also, I still can’t show an “after” of this fireplace without showing the “before”. For the fireplace we just primed and painted the brick with regular semi-gloss paint. Our fire box is really deep and the brick doesn’t get hot at all. If your brick gets hot with a fire, you’ll need to check with your local paint specialist and use a specific kind of paint. Last fall I gathered up a bunch of branches and piled them in the fireplace. We took the mantel down at first but it was back up by Christmas. I even have some sticks that I painted white so I can mix them […]