Hi! I had fun pulling together some design inspiration for Neighbor Gayle’s daughter, Emily, this weekend and thought I’d share it here today in case anyone else is on the hunt for the same kind of inspiration.
Emily and her hubby just moved in to their house up in Vestavia, AL last summer. They love their neighborhood and have already made lots of neat updates to their home. One project they haven’t tackled yet, is their big ol’ brick fireplace:
The first idea that sprang to my mind was that they could do something like this to it:
Here’s a visual of how that might look in Emily’s house…
…and here’s a “presto change-o” photo if you’re on a desktop computer and you’d like to see it flip back and forth between the before photo and the inspiration photo. Just move your cursor on and off of it to see it change:
That’s just one idea, and I’m not sure how fancy-schmancy Emily is wanting to go, so here are a few more photos other examples of wall-to-wall fireplace inspiration:
(source)
Emily, if you’re reading: you could use any kind/style of wood paneling if you like the idea above, and it could be installed diagonally, horizontally or vertically, depending on the orientation you like best. I’d still top the hearth with some kind of stone or concrete  slab(s), and then I’d continue the wood down onto the front of the hearth, too.
John and Sherry Petersik over at Young House Love painted their wall-to-wall bricks, and added a mantel ledge from one side of the room to the other in their first house:
Emily Henderson did a similar treatment in this pretty room:
Emily- you could you a old wood beam in place of the white beam if you’re after a slightly more rustic look.
Here’s another great wall-to-wall idea by Lauren Liess:
Check out the “before” photo:
That second photo shows how flat that wall used to be, and how you could build out from it to add some storage and dimension.
Emily- the bookcases could sit right on top of your existing hearth! 🙂
Have you made over and blogged about a similar style fireplace? I’d love it if you’d link to it in the comment section so Emily can check it out!
Great ideas, Layla! It helps to much to actually get to see visuals of how it could look. I know Emily will have fun thinking through these options.
all great ideas! wow.
i love brick…especially red brick. anything she could do to keep some of the brick red?
I love all of these ideas! Lots of great inspiration! I can’t wait to see what she decides to go with!
I LOOOOOOVE these ideas! Thank you so much! I think incorporating the brick wall with the shelves…Can’t wait to show my husband!
Our fireplace wasn’t brick, but tile. After a few iterations (and a year passed by), we finally finished it with stone veneer, and couldn’t be happier with the end result. I love the idea of built ins, and using stone veneer is an option for the center portion of the fireplace as well.
http://evolutionofstyleblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/diy-stone-fireplace-reveal-for-real.html
Absolutely stunning, Jenny!!
We have an all brick wall with a fireplace. Someday we plan to do built-ins on the sides with doored cupboards on the bottoms and open backed lit shelves on top to preserve some of the integrity of the brick/house.
Love all of the ideas Layla!! Tough choice Emily!!
Love all your ideas….but definitely the book shelves…your can never have too many and I can visualize wonderly pictures of her family along with other books and treasures. I am new to reading blogs and I am very much enjoying yours…keep the great ideas coming!
Hi Layla, I would love to know how you place photos of furniture, etc. into photos of the existing room. Is this a special app? I have some ideas for my LR but it would be helpful if I could see how various pieces of furniture would look in the room. Having a visual aid would be a great help.
Thank you.
p.s. I’d love to move into the blue house in your neighborhood!
Hi Rachel!
I use Photoshop to create my inspiration pics. I taught a class on it over at my hubby’s site- here’s the link if you’d like to check it out: http://shootflyshoot.com/room-makeover-info/
PS- Let’s be neighbors! 😀
Layla, thanks for the quick reply. I will check out the link.
Excellent ideas!! I pinned that salvaged wood photo – love that entire room.
layla, these are great You are so talented.
The baby in Lauren Liess’ photo is adorable. I bet you noticed that, didn’t you?
When we moved in we had just a stone fireplace on what would be the only TV wall and transformed it with built-ins.
http://www.birdsofberwick.com/2013/01/22/refacing-the-fireplace/
We definitely leaned more towards the style of Lauren Liess and I keep contemplating painting the backs of ours with something interesting too! Good luck Emily!
If that is a south facing window and that wall gets direct sun during the winter, I would leave it… That is a lot of thermal mass to cover with a material and color that won’t absorb and release heat.
I think they’ve decided to build the bookcases AND keep some of the brick between them, Julie, but your comment brings up a great point! Thanks for adding that to the conversation here today! 😀
Ha! We live in an old farm house in Minnesota that is heated with propane. It has been a very long, very cold winter already. Propane is over $5/gallon (last January it was about $1.60). Our house doesn’t have anything in the way of thermal mass and very few south facing windows. I have been having thermal mass and passive heating envy. :oP
One thought on the fireplace redo-you might want to eliminate the raised hearth. Children often fall against raised hearths with very bad results. Just a thought for families with small children.