Before and After: Living Room Fireplace Wall

The main focal point of our new home’s open concept living space is the tall brick fireplace with two bookshelves on either side.  Since we finally just finished styling the bookshelves, I thought it would be fun to share the pictures of what the entire fireplace wall looked like when we bought the house. By the way, a separate blog post with all of the tips and tricks I learned about filling those shelves is coming soon.

I’ve been waiting a year to show everyone what we’ve done to our place and plan on posting many more “Before & After” pics in the future. Here’s the full view of the wall where the fireplace, mantel and bookshelves are located…

BEFORE: This is the photo that was used in the real estate listing for the home before we bought it.

I know that everyone says this about re-decorating but it really is true: “It’s amazing what a little paint can do.”

AFTER: This is how the wall looks now!

Adding the tall floor mirror directly above the mantel really helped to draw the eye up and painting all of the green-colored wood with a fresh coat of white paint made it look clean and modern. Before we even moved in, we plastered over the stucco that was on all of the walls, painted the entire interior and added light-colored wood flooring, crown molding, baseboards and some new trim throughout the entire house. It really made the entire house look so much better. We haven’t done any major renovations to our place yet but we do have a big exterior project in mind (it’ll involve architects) that will likely happen in the next couple of years.

Decor sources:

Pottery Barn Silver Floor Mirror – no longer available but similar here and here |  Mercury Glass Candle Holders | Pillar Candles | Flat panel fireplace screen | Chandelier – one-of -a-kind find but similar here and here

Hold tight for the blog post that I’ll be adding with info on all of the items in the bookshelves! Let me know your thoughts on the fireplace wall makeover, in the comments below.