LIVING ROOM MAKEOVER *Beams, Fireplace Design, DIY Frame* | Chapter One | XO MaCenna

a lot of things. we have a few major projects that we need to tackle. this is our living room, the space that we spend the most time in at home. a space that has so much potential but most of its character has been covered up. a space that has evolved a bit since we moved in but has a long way to go. Everything in the room had been painted white by previous owners. Walls, ceiling, windows, beams, and the fireplace. And as I designed joining rooms we started to add in a few things to this room as well. Those that I knew

would be kind of permanent to the space. So we started by changing the openings and adding more detailed trim work. And then last fall, we actually painted the walls to warm up the room because I knew what color I ultimately wanted it to be. And finally, a few months ago,

the huge blank wall was just getting to me. So I hung all of my collected art and made a massive gallery wall, which I loved but ultimately knew was going to be temporary as our baby started to grow and kind of grab at things. So now it's time to reimagine this room into a vintage inspired elevated yet cozy

living room for our family one DIY at a time. We have a few major projects that we need to tackle.

One is the beams.

This is the last set of beams that we need to tackle in the house because they painted them white. Number two, my big beautiful cabinet that I want to build here. I want it to look like furniture. I don't want it, I want it to be built in and secure but I want it to feel like a really large custom hutch. Pretty things and decorate because it's just a big empty space and it like it's like calling for something you know. I really want

to rethink the fireplace wall. We have a dual-sided fireplace so you can see it from both sides. I have, I want to do them differently. In the front room I did like a chocolate color and it wasn't built out like this. It was actually just flush with the wall. So it made sense that it was all one color and then it just had like a substantial mantle. So I'd love to rethink the brick.

I think that the scale of the mantle is a little off so I'd love to do something with that. Maybe even add some texture up top. Definitely frame out the frame TV so it looks more like art. Like lots of updates here, I think,

would be really good,

because this is our focal point. This big window has definitely become Keith's sanctuary. I love it actually because it's tucked out of the way. It's part of our main living space. It's the place that we've kind of child-proofed the most. It's what our family needs at this point. So this is definitely gonna stay his play area.

We're just gonna add some curtains and do the things around it and see if we can make it make sense

with the rest of the space.

I created a mood board to kind of show you the direction that I wanna take the overall design and what pieces we already have that we're gonna still be incorporating and what other furniture pieces we're gonna be swapping out or adding to what we've got. I want this to feel warm, cozy, lived-in, comfortable but also elevated. Definitely pieces that we're keeping are our vintage rug that I bought when we moved in here from the flea market. Also our

coffee table which I love that's round that has like a stone look. The floors will stay the same and the paint color has already been updated to the Sculptor Clay by Behr which I love. We're going to be updating the fireplace wall to add warmth and more detail and really think through the design of it. Our couch is a light off-white color and it's also modular so it's L-shaped and I think it disrupts the flow of the room having that L-shape. So I'd like to either reconfigure the pieces of

our existing couch and have it recovered in like a beautiful deep blue or dark blue color or replace our couch with a one that has a performance fabric or something that's going to be really durable. Getting new chairs that are a little bit smaller because the ones that we have right now are just too large and we keep running into them so they they're too wide for the space. Also I want to build some custom bookshelves and bring in window treatments to just really polish off the space, make it feel warm and inviting. In terms of floor plan

I have thought through all the kind of different furniture positions that we could do in the space. We have so many walkthroughs to other parts of our house from this room, so to our formal living room, to the bedroom, outside, to the kitchen, and none of the furniture hugs the walls in the space and we have the fireplace that's obviously permanent on one side. So there's really only one practical way which is the rug in the center with the coffee table and then the couch on one side and two chairs by the fireplace.

Ideally, these would swivel as well so that you could turn them to look at the fireplace and TV. We have a pretty real decision to make about these beams. So I've done two different swatches with two different techniques that we can do. The first technique is using the citrus strip and stripping everything off and just spending the time, the elbow grease, really getting into it. I'm very afraid of this but this would really bring it to that raw wood

which is really the look that I want which is you know just the better more

elevated option,

I feel like, with the citrus drip. The alternative is to do a faux wood look. They're already painted, so essentially painting them again, but giving them a wood look back. And that's what this product, Rotika, I've used it on several projects.

It comes out beautiful, and in a situation like this where they're up high,'re never going to touch them it could be a good alternative. I've done the two samples and I just know in my gut that I don't want to fake it. It's gonna be a process, a very gooey ooey gross process and it's gonna take a lot of arm strength but I don't want to fake it. I want it to be the real beans. I'm trying out this crud cutter after I strip with some steel wool. I'm hoping it cuts through the rest of the goo

that's kind of in the cracks.

I think it might.

I'm gonna layer the beans with the orange strip and start stripping off the old paint.

This will help me kind of clean it up after we strip. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Even though she could knock down and never show. Feel your weight and where you go. When it's so hot that why'd you fall back?

Lately your afterglow is shining brighter, waking up an amnesiac

How's it coming?

It's coming.

We're almost done with one beam completely. I'm doing like all the perfecting work, like this crud cutter Rust-Oleum thing. Look, it's like destroyed. I'm like stuck to the, look at this. These tools do work.

Crud cutter, steel, like brush, probably even bigger than this would be really handy. A scraper, an exacto knife for like the, I'm doing like the edging work and stuff, and the stripper obviously to start with. But this, these are huge beams and I spent two hours over there in the corner because they decided to fill the knots in the beam down there with like joint compound or plaster or something.

I had to like chip it out. That was not fun. After 10 days and two seasons of Gilmore Girls playing on the background, we have done it.

We have stripped the beams.

These were big.

And a lot of tedious work around the edges, close to the ceiling, around all the adjoining wood pieces that come into the big beam. I did contemplate stripping the perpendicular beams as well, the little pieces,

but I just feel like from a design perspective,

it's gonna be too design perspective, it's going

to be too many lines, too much going on. Feel like I'm going to like it better if it's a tonal color to the ceiling, the same color as the ceiling. We are finally ready to stain.

I'm very excited.

So, I have a few options here that I can play around with. So, the color of the stain is called Kona by Verithane. And I have it in two different versions. I have it in gel stain and also just a penetrating premium stain. The gel stain definitely goes very dark and it has a thicker consistency.

So this is the penetrating stain. That's going on definitely darker than I had imagined, but it definitely has like a golden luster to it. It's actually quite nice. I thought it was gonna kinda dilute. This is the gel stain now on raw wood.

Definitely darker, same color obviously, definitely darker. I'm gonna go with the regular penetrating stain in color Kona. My goal really was with the beams in the entire house was to get them to look like the beams were originally. We're pivoting, it can't be better. Once I started staining, it started to like highlight anywhere where there was still residue underneath that I couldn't see. I feel like the only way to get it off completely is to sand it.

I tried so hard not to sand it. I was like, no, I don't want to sand it. I want it to be raw, have lots of the ridges. I just don't want it to be smooth new wood. It's going to give it a better stained finish. I actually can't believe that we're on the other side of this project and these beams are actually completed. They're stripped, they're sanded, and they're stained.

Really practice does make perfect. So going through this process a few times now in the house, we've been able to perfect not only the process but also the products that we used. So I'm going to put up all of the supplies. If you ever get into a situation where you need to strip off layers of paint, specifically off wood, maybe a furniture piece or beams like this, or trimming or doors, something like this, use these products, do this order. It has worked out really, really well for us. It really gets you a really

beautiful finish. We need to paint the ceiling and also perfect the walls. Almost a year ago now, we actually painted this room Sculptor Clay by Bayer and I love it. It flows with the rest of the house. That's what the kitchen and the front room is also painted. So we're going to have one color throughout the whole space, but in three different ways. The wall color is full strength Sculptor Clay in eggshell. The ceiling Sculptor Clay at negative 50%.

So it's going to be the same color, but a lot lighter, because I don't want them to make the ceilings feel shorter in here. I want them to still feel bright, but I don't want it to be pure white. So we're gonna go with same color, but lighter.

I'm also going to paint all of the recessed light rims to make them kind of blend in and disappear. Also the vent covers. Anything that you have on the ceiling that kind of stands out and is jarring, it just creates more noise visually.

So I always like to kind of wash that out, kind of color drench a room, but adding these differences in strength of the same paint color, you know, to add that dimension into a space. Moving right along to our fireplace wall,

which is our next big project. And this fireplace whole situation has always felt so not it to me. It's like lacked all character. The best thing about it, the best asset, is that the brass fireplace screen is here. Which I love, which I am not touching. I love everything about it. It's patina everything. We also have a dual-sided

fireplace so the same entrance is on the other side. Unlike the other side of this fireplace where it has a full mantle and it's not brick, there's just kind of like some detailing work right around the opening. I love that I painted that one dark but I really want this one to be different because it also has different flooring. This is also all brick instead of just like a drywall or a plaster and it's painted shiny white and I am NOT in love. I do not like it. I don't like that it's shiny. I don't like that it's all

white. So we're gonna be trying out a paint technique using probably four to five different colors. I did look into stripping all of this paint off and it's just not, I don't think, a viable option. I also think into stripping all of this paint off and it's just not, I don't think, a viable option. I also think that the scale is off on the mantle so I would love to beef it up, build it out, actually make it stained instead of painted. And then as we go higher we have a frame TV, a Samsung frame TV. I want to

build out a frame around it, really making it look like a piece of art is hanging over the fireplace. And then painting the back wall. I think by painting it the same color as the ceiling actually, it's going to be a little bit lighter than the wall color, but take the edge off of it being pure white. First thing I'm going to do is prime the brick because I want my treatment and my stone look experiment to actually stick to the fireplace and I think it's too slick to do that right now. Last night

I was mixing up some paints to try and get the same kind of tone that's in our inspiration picture so that we can have variations in color. So it's subtle, but it's definitely a change to make them look really natural. So I did a science experiment and I have been mixing colors. I don't even know how I derived it some of these colors.

It was just a combination of kind of everything I've got. We're gonna start with the mortar color and I'm just going to follow the grout lines of the original brick, putting the kind of like lightest color, I'd say that I've mixed in the mortar.

I feel like that's gonna give us a good base. And then I'm going to go brick by brick, making each brick look like stone or brick again. Really paying attention to shadows and difference in colors and making them interesting and 3D. So you guys, I've been playing around with this

and like layering and trying to make it look real. I don't feel like I'm a good enough painter for this. In person, it feels and looks fake. I'm trying to make this work and I just feel like it's kind of a lost cause. Okay, if you've been following along on my vlog channel you've been on the journey with me of figuring out what I'm doing to this

fireplace. We've gone to the stores, we've gone to all the places to try and find a solution because I just I don't like it white. Now the idea is to cover it up basically with more stone but specifically using a thin brick veneer. So I've been looking for the right color. My inspiration was very light, but based on what I could find and what they actually make, I have found and have all the supplies for this one. And after sitting with it for quite some time, it's quite beautiful. It's warm, light. We can definitely change the overall coloring of this brick overall with the color of the

grout. I'm going with a marble beige, which is going to be a lot lighter and pick up these lighter tones. I've been doing a lot of research on how to do this. Since this brick is painted, I'm going to have to do a few steps in order for the new brick to actually stick to it.

I've picked up metal lath, I hope I'm even saying that right, and we're going to screw it into the brick part to create a strong surface for the new brick to stick to. Don't let the quickness of this footage fool you. Applying this metal to the brick, I had to drill almost 200 holes into the brick to attach it. I was quite sore after and had lots of little baby cuts all over my hands, but essentially we needed to create a new structure for the brick to actually stick to, so this was so necessary in making sure that this

brick now lasts a lifetime on top of this painted brick, because I really didn't want to cut any corners with the insulation. Okay, our new wall structure is essentially built. So now I'm just gonna scrape off any rough patches, and we can start to lay our new thin brick veneer. But first we have to kind of figure out a pattern because I want this to be designed. I want it to be thought

through. You can order these in corners and that definitely comes in handy. It was going to take two weeks to order the corners. For some reason I have it in my head that things and colors aren't going to match. I'm in that phase. So I'm actually doing this without the corners. I wanna create a decorative border here. So I'm gonna have the top one hang over a bit and then the bottom one meet it underneath.

And so that way it looks more like a complete brick and kinda gives this like dental design look, if you've ever heard of that. So I'm gonna do that all the way around and have them kind of gives this like dental design look, if you've ever heard of that. So I'm gonna do that all the way around and have them kind of meet in the corner so they're really pretty together.

And then everything else will be staggered and brick stacked. So I have to cut 31 bricks to make this design around the heart. So I'm gonna be using a wet saw outside. These are so much more affordable to actually purchase if you're gonna be doing projects in your house. I used to rent a wet saw to work on tile projects for bathrooms or back splashes.

This wet towel saw is about $60 and it has gotten me through so many projects at the cottage. These are just straight cuts so I'm not doing anything crazy. Once I get these cut I can go ahead and mix up some mortar that we're going gonna be using to get these bricks stuck to our new Surface, I think this brick color complements a lot of the other elements in the room Really well has a sink coloring in the floor, but it's a lot lighter and then it matches kind of the brass accents

We already have on the fireplace and also goes really well with our sculptor Clay color that we've already painted the walls. And what I love is that it's gonna start to bring some warmth down here onto the fireplace. In addition, we're gonna do some updates to the mantle too and make that more warm. So overall, I feel like we're gonna be adding a lot of character to it while complementing the brick floors that are putting on the brick.

I got the majority of the facade, like the front part done. Couple of things I've learned during this process is wait the two weeks for the corners. They sell corners to this brick. It will make your life so much easier. I was impatient, we were impatient,

and I don't wanna wait. And I'm doing just fine making them on my own, but I'm having to do a lot more cuts. I'm having to go through a lot more process, so it's slowing the process down. One thing I'm doing to kind of help, because since I'm cutting the brick,

I have like a straight edge. I'm actually going back with just a screwdriver and roughing up the edge again, so it doesn't look so perfect. Because I don't want any part of this to look overly perfect, I guess is a good way of putting it. I want it to look, feel real and raw,

but I am spending a lot of time on the corner pieces where that would have been a pretty easy process to do. You can still do it if you but it already looks so good. So I'm going to let this set overnight and we're going to grout it tomorrow. But it already looks so good. Feels so good in here. All the texture and adding some character back to the fireplace is so good.

I'm excited to see what it looks like with the floor after we pick up the paper. But I want to leave it down while we complete the project. So this was actually a chair molding that I found at the hardware store. I was looking for something unique but possibly multiple pieces of trim that I could put together to make it unique as well. But when I found this one I was like this is really pretty and I can't go too big for this DIY frame because I don't have a lot of space around the TV because of

the size of the TV which is a non-negotiable for us. This one was three inches. I liked that it had a natural up kick on the side, which gave it dimension and depth without being too much. To further give it kind of a finished edge, I did get another piece that's just a flat kind of lattice

piece to put on the edge. And that way it kind of finishes it off. It creates like a cap at the end. And I think it'll make it look more like a frame instead of just one piece of trim. So I'm gonna cut my pieces exactly the dimension

of the inside measurement of my TV, which for this TV is 56 and a quarter wide by 31 and five eighths tall. I'm gonna be cutting on a 45 degree angle so that when they join together, they create the 90 degree angle for the frame.

We have all of our pieces. I'm gonna use these flat corner braces that come in a pack of four already to assemble the frame. I'm gonna kind of build it upside down. Putting the screw in the thickest part of the trim so it doesn't go all the way through.

Honestly I feel like I could stop here and it would be beautiful but I feel like this edge will add just a little bit of finality to it. I don't know, like something about it, I feel like will help. Just gonna mark where I need to cut and cut it straight with my little hand trim cutter. It works really well for small pieces.

And then use my brad nailers with the smallest brads I've got, which is 5 1⁄8 inch. Nail it into the side.

Oh, with a little bit of wood glue. Oh, my God.

Base of the frame is complete. Super simple. You guys, this is like a really easy DIY project. And now I'm gonna add something on the back of it to actually attach it to the TV because it's got to stay up there. I use these bungee cords from the hardware store.

They have like some stretch to them, some give, but they're not super stretchy. You know like I just wanted something with a little bit of give so that it would really grip on to the TV and I don't want it too far in on the frame because I want to be able to you know get it around there with with ease but it's still really hang on. Screw it into the biggest part of the frame.

I also went through and filled all of the pinholes from assembling the frame and also like the kind of joints where all of the pieces met together. I have attempted a couple of DIY projects where I've tried to make something look ornate, like ornate gold, like an old picture frame. And I've tried a couple of techniques,

but all really using varieties of spray paint. Never tried this method before. I'm gonna be using gold leaf sheets and also glaze on top of that. Got this metal leaf adhesive that stays tacky when it dries and allow 30 to 60 minutes to dry. So this is really pretty.

And I'm excited to do this for another project, but I feel like for this frame, it's too bright. When I put it up to the TV in the room, it's giving too much of a glare, of a brightness. I think this method and this technique would look so pretty on a frame that's more detailed, that has a lot more like crevices and and deep depth to it so that gold leaf only becomes the highlights and it only kind of makes up like 30% of the frame. So for this frame for our TV I want to subdue it a little bit but I still want it to be

ornate gold. I'm just gonna make sure that this is super smooth so I'm hitting it with some light grit sandpaper. I'm gonna use my tried-and-true method that I've used before which is the Rust-Oleum metallic in champagne bronze. I've tested tons of different spray paints and this seems to give me the best First coat and then I can go back with some antiquing wax and some glaze to give it the depth and stuff at least this Will be the right color starting point and it won't be so bright. So while that dries, let's talk about the mantle now This mantel has always felt very

Insane. Well, this is not it. Actually. This is a board that I put up there to see. It's always felt pretty insignificant to me. It's not very deep, it's not very wide, it's not very tall. So I want to add some beefiness to it. I want to build it out more. That's why I didn't bring the brick all the way up. I contemplated removing this mantle and kind of using its parts but I think it's good for structure and it was difficult to strip the paint off. So I'm gonna use it as a structural element.

I have this wider piece of wood that I'm gonna use for the top of our mantel. So I'm gonna essentially be building it up a little bit, building it down a little bit and out a little bit. So this is gonna be like our base. It's gonna be about an inch and three eighths more surface area,

which I think is great because then I can use it for Christmas decorations and you know, just like a larger surface. We already have our Sonos speaker that goes up here that will have to live here for the TV, but because we really enjoy it, but I want like more surface area around it. So if we start with this piece, let me kind of get into position,

something like that. I found this really pretty crown molding piece at the hardware store. It had a gorgeous profile.

Can you see that?

Look at that profile. My idea is to put the crown molding underneath here and miter the corners obviously to kind of cap around the existing mantle. That's not enough for me. I want to bring it even further down. That's why I didn't bring this brick up. So I've got another piece, another flat piece here that's going to bring it down even further. So I'm gonna start designing this out and I'm gonna build it outside

and then kind of just put it up here and attach it. Can show you, be something like that.

Can you imagine it?

Yeah.

And I also want to stain this, the dark Kona stain to match the beams. So it looks really like rich and You know brings the warmth down here. I feel like it's gonna be so hope you guys have enjoyed chapter one of our living room Makeover this update video is long overdue You know brings the warmth down here. I feel like it's gonna be so hope you guys have enjoyed chapter one of our living room Makeover this update video is long overdue So I wanted to share my progress so far and make sure you're subscribed with the bell notification on so you can follow along on