Living Room Remodel, Adding a Fireplace and Built in Bookshelves

Living Room Remodel, 

Adding a Fireplace and Built-in Bookshelves by the Anderson's

Today’s remodel feature comes to us from The Anderson’s blog, which documents this young and energetic couple’s adventure of renovating their first home.  Moving from a small one bedroom apartment in Chicago to a four bedroom home in the suburbs has been a fun journey to watch as they make each space truly their own.  I think you’ll be inspired with Eric and Courtney’s most recent project in their home renovation adventure: their living room.

Before:

After:

Background:

Within the first week of moving into the house, we decided the living room was the first place we wanted to update.  The previous owners were in their mid-90's and had a very interesting taste to say the least.  Mirrors, colored carpet, flocked wallpaper everywhere, etc.

The living room is massive and we wanted to add a big statement when people walked into the room.  We thought a fireplace and bookshelves on the back wall would eat up some of the empty space in the room and create a more intimate feeling.  Plus, it wouldn't take up too much space in the room.

Here's how we did it:

We first began by taking off the pink wallpaper and faded blue carpet, which revealed beautiful hardwood floors (lucky us)!  I really like the color blue, so I wanted to paint the background of the soon-to-be bookshelves blue to have a pop of color in the room.

Why would anyone cover these up?

Starting with the fireplace, we decided on white cararra marble to go with the white mantle we picked out.  I wanted the room to feel light and open, and I thought adding a dark marble to white built-in bookshelves would separate the wall unit.

First, we took out a small portion of the hardwood in order to set the marble hearth level with the floor and make the fireplace feel more custom-built.  Using some of the remaining wood planks, we then created a frame around the hearth to enhance the customized look.

Next, we had the fireplace box installed:

Then, we built the frame and drywalled around the fireplace box:

Ta da....

Marble facing and mantle up, along with the Restoration Hardware sconces I found on Craigslist.com:

We followed that up by adding bookshelves:

Painted them...

And added the shelves...

Lastly, we finally filled the bookshelves to complete the room!

The End Product:

Thanks for sharing along in our project!  It has been a lot of fun to see this room transform and we're excited to renovate the family room next.

Love,

The Andersons

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