i have been varnishing the fireplace and gluing the sides flat whenever i got a moment this week, not really something that showed up in pictures. now i finally got to apply the grout and find out if all those coats of varnish sealed my tiles/bricks well enough. in a couple of hours the grout will be dry enough to try and wash the haze off. if not i guess my tiles just got more subdued, which isn’t a bad look really… and i just added grouting to my list of new things i’ve tried!
i like how much more finished the brick look now. i think if i was doing this again i would try to leave a bit more spacing between all the bricks to allow for the grouting. my bottom ones fit together a bit too closely.
edit: i went back to wipe off the haze and found i actually liked it better with some of the haze there. so ended up reapply a bit of the grout and wiping it off again to get the white back in the hollows. it has to dry overnight and then i’ll revarnish with my blend of matte and satin varnish to give a very subtle sheen.
while i’m waiting its time to start painting the hearth and mantel. for the hearth i wanted a stone look that coordinated with but didn’t match the stone in the fireplace, so i gathered up most of the same colors and added them to a paint palette made of a saran covered paper plate. i’ll be applying them with a cheap kitchen sponge to a piece of white painted mdf board.
and.. the painted hearth and mantel.
i kept dipping the sponge in the paint and applying till i got the look i wanted. i’ve done marbling on full sized walls before so this time i had an idea of what i wanted to do :)) when it dries i’ll paint it with a blend of matte and satin varnish to get a really subtle sheen since the satin is too shiny and the matte too dull.
it’s hard to see on the mantel but i painted it with white chalk paint and then when it was dry sanded it smooth and it matches the wood front almost perfectly :yay! i’ll be coating that with my ulta matte varnish to keep the worn look.
