As you may remember last week’s instalment of the Rock My Room living room challenge featured lighting and wall colours. During week two it was all about painting the woodwork and jazzing up the are around the fire.
The two updates didn’t take too much time but the fire surround in particular has made a big impact. These kind of updates are my favourite.
The Fire Surround
The fire has fooled many a guest. It’s actually an electric stove but the previous owners left behind a faux flue and logs which give the illusion of a traditional wood burner.
Straight after our offer was accepted I started looking for inspiration for the fake chimney breast as I was keen to add a focal point to the room. I steered away from adding a sleeper or chunky piece of wood above the opening as I wanted to move away from the rustic look which I’d really gone to town with in our last cottage. After a bit if a hunt I found a wooden fire surround on eBay for just £65. It was supplied in four pieces so is flexible enough to fit around a variety of widths and heights. James and I spent an hour or two fixing it to the wall and then applied three coats of Farrow and Ball’s Estate Eggshell in Cornforth White.
I’ve recommended this shade to tons of people in the past but it’s the first time I’ve used it in my own home. I love it! It’s a very easy mid neutral, bordering on grey but in my pad there’s a taupe tone to it too.
Making this change to the room only took an afternoon but it’s made a big impact. Your eye is immediately drawn to this area now and I also have somewhere to display all my tat. Ahem, I mean carefully curated trinkets.
Woodwork
With the walls painted in Crown’s sail white, the skirting boards were all given a coat of Dulux Once Satinwood. I favour satinwood over gloss as I like the semi matte finish. I did dither about applying eggshell but decided it wouldn’t be hard wearing enough for such a high traffic space.
I’ll be back next week to talk you through the storage plans for the living room but in the meantime please do join in and share your progress as really helps to keep up the motivation levels. I have loved seeing all the #RockMyRoom updates via Instagram so please continue to share your snaps.
Looks fab!! We did a similar thing in our old house with a surround of eBay, they really are great value for money X
Aren’t they Becca? Such a bargain.
Looks amazing! How do you like the electric stove? We’re thinking about whether to get one until we can save up for a real woodburner. Also, how did you fit the surround to the wall??
We’re lucky to have a real wood burner in the other room so get the best of both. The electric one is so good when you want a quick burst of heat.
The surround is just fitted with simple brackets- sorry should have mentioned that in the post.
SO gorgeous Laurie xx
Thanks lovely x
Looking good! You had me fooled on the electric stove, it looks cracking.
I have a question for you my interiors oracle – You’ve mentioned you’ve used Satinwood over Eggshell as its more hard wearing. We’re literally about to use Eggshell on our stair spindles/handrail… is it a big no-no for high traffic areas? I have wondered if it’s the wrong choice when it’s likely to be a magnet for mucky fingers but didn’t even consider Satinwood as a middle ground until now.
xx
I love the look of eggshell Karen (even though some folk think it looks like undercoat) but it can be a pain in the bum for getting marked. I think I might be inclined to go down the satinwood route for handrails etc. It’d be a shame to have to keep retouching it x
Agreed. We’ve used it everywhere else, on things like skirting boards and picture rails, but for something that is as frequently grabbed as a handrail we might need to go for durability. I’d completely forgotten that there was more than one alternative to gloss!
Thanks Lauren xx
Hi Lauren, your posts are helping me so much as we just bought our first flat and we are redecorating it at the moment. It’s the first time after 13 years of renting and it is freaking us out!! Even if we only need to do some painting and changing the flooring. We decided on the sail white by Crown for the living room and Cornforth White for the bedrooms. However you are now making me worried with your different paint on the skirting board!! Are you meant to use a different paint?
Hi Marine,
Emulsion paint is generally for walls, so for woodwork it’s usual to go for a paint specially designed for the surface such as an oil based gloss, or eggshell or satinwood. It’s not compulsory though – emulsion on woodwork won’t be as durable though x
Lauren, It’s looking so lovely! What a bargain. That’s definitely making me think about doing something similar. Cost v impact makes is a very attractive option! I’ve also been eyeing up your rug as we need something new for our sitting room. Is it from Loaf? x
Hi Sarah, it’s from HomeSense – quite a few years ago now but Loaf do have a similar one x
Looks great! Although I’ve had a not so great experience with cornforth white- used it on our landing and given the not so great light there it looked very brown. We painted over it with Ammonite which is the same colour tones but a couple of shades lighter.
Can I ask where your gorgeous rug is from please?
That’s interesting to know Alice. Ammonite is such a good choice though – such a calm colour.
Rug was from HomeSense but several years ago unfortunately x
Lauren this looks great. Me and my husband are also looking at updating our fireplace. If you use anything to prep the fireplace before painting and to also finish it off?
Hi Katie, we should probably have used a primer on the fireplace first but just went straight for the F&B. We used three coats of estate eggshell for the surround.
Lauren you’ve done a fab job of it! It looks stunning x
[…] storage ain’t necessarily the most exciting subject matter but given the comments on last week’s fire surround install I thought you might appreciate this week’s Rock My Room […]
Looks fab! I’m totally going to do this. Did you have to cut a bit of your skirting off to make way for it?
[…] and finished off the week by adding the Cox and Cox grey pendant lighting to the ceiling. On to week two and this is when we added the eBay fire surround painting it with several coats of Farrow and […]
We are wanting to paint existing untreated chest of draws with farrow and ball cornforth white would we need to prime or do an undercoat of some sort or just a few coats of the f&b paint? Also what finish would you recommend?
Hi Valerie, I’d always recommend a primer rather than extra coats of F&B as it’s a pricey paint. I like to use the Estate Eggshell.