Fireplace Planking Reveal

If you follow me on Instagram, you may remember the sneak peek of our fireplace that I posted after Thanksgiving. We had to finish up the trim pieces after I posted that picture, but I'm finally here today to share with you our big fireplace planking reveal!

You may remember from previous living room posts that we had our TV on a media stand in the corner. Ever since we moved into this house, Jeremy has been suggesting to put the TV above the fireplace. I have never gone for that idea, though, because I love decorating the fireplace and didn't want to decorate around a big black box. But, after his most recent TV relocation suggestion, I realized how much floor space it would clear up in the living room, so started to warm up to the idea. We decided to make a deal: Jeremy got the TV above the fireplace if he built me planking to pretty it up. Mawage Mawage! ;) It's a win win for us both! We will eventually get a slightly bigger TV and mount it to the wall, but that's not at the top of the priority list at the moment.

Jeremy built the planking over Thanksgiving break. We used packages of planking from Home Depot and cut them down to size. Jeremy used his router to made a groove down the side of a 1x2 for the planking to slide into on the each side. He then attached the left 1x2 board with his nail gun, slid in all the planks, then attached the right side board. The planks themselves are in there really right, but are not actually nailed in. They are held in by the side pieces. We chose to build it this way, because we were afraid the nail gun would split the thin planking wood.

This method worked beautifully, but did give us a bit of a hiccup. Even though the planks were tight, they settled a bit over time leaving a tiny gap between the top board and the crown moulding. We decided to add a trim piece to the top and the bottom of the planking to finish it off so we wouldn't have to worry about gaps.

We did our usual Jeremy builds, I paint strategy. If I need to prime something, I usually just do a thin coat of primer then two top coats. But, because of all the knots in the wood, I was really afraid of bleed through. I did two good coats of Kilz oil based primer to ensure no wood grain or knots would be peeking through. After that, I only had to do one coat of white trim paint. Not bad at all!

I LOVE how it turned out! It is so bright and cheerful and adds a nice cottage touch to the living room!

We still need to have the electrician out to rewire the TV, but in the meantime, I rolled up the cords for the pictures so you could see it distraction free. ;)

I've had fun decking out my fireplace in sea glass and white! The candleholders, glass vase, and flowers are from World Market. The white vase is from Target and the white lantern is from Lowe's.

And, just for kicks, a little before and after! 

This picture is from Fall 2012:

And now! 

Next week, I'll share the rest of our living room plans with you. We're getting close to being done!



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