{ Finding your style }

It's not always easy to find your style.

Especially when you first move in to your home.

It takes time & tweeking.  And, even then, you'll probably wind up tweeking some more.

This is what my fireplace in my dining room looks like today.

I'm happy with it.  But it took a while to get here.

When we first saw the house, the room looked like this.

I knew right away I wanted to room to be a dining room instead of a living room.

And, I  L O V E  it as a dining room.

At first, I just thought the fireplace needed a tiny bit of color, so I painted it sea salt by sherwin williams.

Snore.

Something still was just not right. So, I Darkened the back wall and added horizontal stripes.

The stripes worked out great, but I knew the mantel needed to be heftier. 

So, we had a mantel made from old barn wood by John Duffy, from Stable Tables.

getting there...

Then, finally a little before Christmas, I painted the fireplace black.

Donk.  That was it.

Now, the fireplace works well with the rest of the room , and the rest of the house for that matter.

So, it takes a while, but keep tweeking.  i know I always will.