Last week, I shared a progress update about our built-ins, and today I’m sharing the progress on our family room fireplace. This transformation feels like such a big moment for this refresh that I felt the fireplace deserved its own post.

When I began designing our family room, my goal was clear: stay true to the architecture of the home. For me, it’s important that every detail feels intentional, timeless, and seamlessly connected to the rest of the house. That means any update we make needs to enhance the home’s classic charm while adding a little extra character. (In case you missed it – you can view the mood board + inspiration here!)

That’s where the fireplace comes in. It’s one of two focal points in this space, and it comes with three big challenges..

Challenge # 1: The Mantel

The existing mantel is beautifully crafted, but something about it feels unfinished to me. I prefer mantels to feel substantial – and in this case, I think our fireplace could use a bit more structure.

I completely forgot to snap a proper before picture with everything cleaned off the fireplace. This shot is from when we first moved in, so it’s a bit chaotic.

Challenge #2: The Brick

The fireplace brick matches the orange-toned brick on the exterior of our home, but I wish it had more of a warm, rusty terracotta look. Unfortunately, it leans into a very cool-toned orange hue. This photo doesn’t even begin to capture how intense it feels in person.

While I love that the brick ties the interior and exterior together, the undertone clashes with my proposed updates. Not to mention, that yellowy brass box detail immediately dates the fireplace 30 years – but that’s an easy fix.

Challenge #3: Competition With The Built-Ins

The fireplace is located directly next to our built-ins which are already such a strong visual element in the room. The challenge is creating a design that allows the fireplace to complement the built-ins while holding its own as a statement piece. Both elements need to feel cohesive, intentional, and balanced without one overpowering the other. (A big thanks to our realtor for sending me photos of the house pre-move-in because every single one of my before images is blurry!)

We’ve been moving a little out of order with the fireplace updates because our carpenter is already on-site working. To keep costs down and to streamline the process, I had him tackle the mantel installation at the same time. This means the mantel will be installed before we address the brick, but we’ll work around it to ensure everything flows beautifully in the end. This is not the ideal way to do things, but sometimes you have to be flexible!

Designing The Family Room Fireplace

When designing the new mantel, I wanted something that felt rooted in tradition but still worked with the scale of the room. After combing through every Colonial design book I could get my hands on, I landed on a design that checks all the boxes. Here’s what I came up with:

Adding Legs: A straight-across mantel feels incomplete, so adding legs instantly gives it more presence and elegance.

A Thick Header: To balance the scale of the family room fireplace, I’m opting for a thick, prominent header.

Intentional Details: The mantel design echoes the crown molding in the rest of the house and ties into the existing architecture. I’m also adding a decorative trim piece between the legs and header to make it feel polished and cohesive.

Surround Materials: In this design, I am showing a grey version of brick. I like the idea of updating what we have to continue tying together the interior with the exterior without wasting perfectly good material.

Here’s the progress of the mantel coming to life..

Paint Progress + Updates

Since I’m sharing all the progress updates in this space, I also want to chat about paint. Before our floors were installed, I primed the entire back half of the house to get a head start. While it might look like we’ve jumped from a weird beige-tan to white walls, what you’re seeing is just primer.

Our family room gets plenty of light thanks to all of the large windows, thought you can’t really tell from this dark photo. What is going on with my photo taking skills today?!

Since this room faces northeast, the natural light tends to be much cooler. I want to select a creamy white paint with subtle warmth to offset that coolness so that nothing feels too stark or sterile.

After testing a few options (Simply White, White Dove, and Swiss Coffee), I landed on Simply White. It felt the most neutral and airy without leaning too yellow, gray, or blue. You can see how much warmer this white is compared to the primer once it’s on the wall – the difference is night and day!

Considering The Open Floor Layout

To add some context to my thoughts on our paint selection, the family room is wide open to our still very dated kitchen. We won’t be addressing the kitchen for quite some time, so any paint decision has to complement the current kitchen and flow nicely into the newly updated space – including its green countertops.

By choosing a neutral wall color, I’m hoping to set a versatile foundation that can evolve with future updates. It also lets me bring in color and pattern elsewhere without overwhelming each space.

What’s Next

This room + the family room fireplace is evolving into such a warm and inviting space and I can’t wait to see it fully come together. From the thoughtful mantel design to the perfect creamy white paint, every decision feels like it’s bringing us closer to the home we envisioned.

What do you think about the mantel design and the paint choices? I’d love to hear your thoughts! You can follow along with our renovation journey on TikTok or see my latest inspiration for this space on Pinterest.