fireplace makeover

In July of 2020, my partner Dan, Shiba Inu Moxxi, and I moved from Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington to the coast of Oregon. Specifically, the river and shipping industry town of Astoria (yes, THAT Astoria). Located right at the mouth of the Columbia River where it flows into the Pacific, this town is steeped in versatile and historic architecture. We fell in love with a 1914 Craftsman perched on top of the hill with spectacular views of downtown and the river. Love at first sight actually. As a bonus, it only needed some painting, minor tweaks, and a few “down-the-road” projects. As pretty passionate fireplace users (to shake off the rainy days and nights of the PNW Coast) however, we wanted to tackle the fireplace immediately. 

The previous owners had installed tiles that I like to think were found on some special vacation they took to a far away place and wanted to bring home something that captured their experience. We prefer a simpler “less is best” look so we got to work chipping away (literally!) at the tile and removing the white custom wood mantle. What we revealed was a lovely pale red brick, albeit crumbling in some spots. 

Immediately, I thought of my childhood basement fireplace. Brick, simple, and it had a custom made mantle created and installed by my Dad. It was a huge old wooden beam salvaged from a farm somewhere in Southern West Virginia. At that moment, I said to Dan “let’s get a piece of driftwood from the beach” (the beach is just a few miles from our home)!  Also, I knew my Dad would be coming for an extended visit and thought it would be both a wonderful memory and tribute to him if the three of us could work on this project together (spoiler alert - he did!). 

I struggled a bit with painting over the brick but ultimately decided to go with a stark white paint especially after finding the most perfect white-washed driftwood at the beach. However, the driftwood was a bit large and found we would have some challenges hanging it on the delicate masonry. Dad arrived in Astoria, and a few days later, Dan and my Dad wielded a chainsaw, a dovetail saw, and some chisels and created the perfect mantle for our fireplace and a precious memory that I will cherish forever. Now we have the fireplace of our dreams that didn’t cost much and was a true labor of love!

Head over to Instagram to see the before and after side by side @mccdecorandstyle.

My Dad has always loved a good fireplace, and I learned their value early on.