I was so happy to finally complete my gigantic rock fireplace makeover! Take a look at the “before” photo.

Quite a change right?? I wasn’t quite sure exactly what I was going to do for this project and decided I would figure it out on the fly. I primed to see if it was going to work simply painted and could stop there. Here’s how it looked primed. By the way, I used a masonry primer recommended to my by the folks at Sherwin Williams.

Nope, still a little too extra! I knew I had to keep going, the next step is to remove the rock on the side walls.

We were left with some gaps where the rock met up with the fireplace. We filled these with good stuff and then mortared over the top. After that was complete, I painted the rock using SW Duration latex paint. I used the color Cotton Balls, same color I used in my kitchen cabinets. Speaking of, we’ve made an awesome cabinet painting tutorial, totally free, get your copy HERE.

I had to also do some drywall repairs. I’m not the best drywall person but can usually make due with the premixed wall mud and this spray texture from Amazon (https://amzn.to/3fSrwKP). Once the rock was removed, I decided to add built-ins, because who couldn’t use some more storage? The cabinet wasn’t too difficult because I really just needed to build a frame. Here’s a photo to show the frame and the patched walls.

My wallpaper is from York Wallcoverings, this is the link HERE. The video below will tell you more about how I installed this pre-pasted wallpaper. Also, HERE is a link to the mirrors.

The doors I added are from Fast Cabinet Doors. This is such a great solution because I’m not quite ready to build my own cabinet doors from both a tool or an experience level. I love being able to choose my exact style and wood species. I chose maple for these cabinets. I’ve been noticing a trend in cabinetry, mixing in more woodtones. I love the lighter colors of white oak and maple. Non-painted cabinets are great options for families that need something a little more durable than painted cabinets. I stained my maple cabinets with Minwax Weathered Grey. If you have the opportunity to add soft close hinges to your cabinets, I think it is 100% worth the cost. I love that my doors don’t slam shut! I’d love to add them to my kitchen cabinets, but that’s for another day . . .

The link to the pulls are HERE.

I knew that I wanted some type of hard surface on my new cabinets, so I called some local counter top suppliers and asked about remnants. They told me about a company called Countertop Smart, who has an awesome business model! Basically you can look at counter top remnants in your area and set up an appointment to take a look. As I write this, they are only in the Austin/San Antonio area but hopefully they’ll expand. Check out all the options! I then worked with the counter top supplier to finish the counter in my size.

The final step was to calk around the counter and cabinet edges. I feel like my fireplace is so much more my style and doing it all myself saved us lots of money! I hope you enjoyed my rock fireplace makeover!

If you’d like to save this rock fireplace makeover project for later, the graphic below would be perfect for Pinterest.