Fireplace Mantel

For the past few weeks I've been helping my beloved boyfriend's mother clean out her basement. She is having it renovated with beautiful new floors, walls, the whole shebang. The problem lies with having three son's worth of childhood memories, books, furniture, plus her own things that she can't bare to throw away.  I have to admit, she has been pretty good about it, and has donated many items, recycled what she could, and has given away so much of`of it to anyone she thinks might use it, including me.

I managed to snag the exterior of a broken electric fireplace. I loved the look, but not the color so much. I wish I had taken a photo before I got to work on it, but here's one of what the finish originally looked like.

 Here is the base, pre-painting. As you can see it's light wood.

 

Nick got in on the action and suggested we painted the inside the brightest yellow he could find. The paint guy at Canadian Tire really didn't hide his fear that it would be intense. However, we knew it would just go on the interior and not be a showcase. Plus we were painting over brown, so no biggie!

 After a bunch of coats, this is how it was looking.

Finally after 2 trips to the hardware store and a lot of waiting for coats to dry, this is what we had.

It's hard to see the yellow, but it really does look good. I love the look and white makes it look so clean and fresh. Who needs an inside, when it looks great just as it is!