Circa '34 Barn fireplace

Wow! A thousand apologies for dragging my feet on a blog post. I never realized all the work that went into blogging and I am amazed at the dedication a lot of bloggers have. You have my deepest respect!

We have made a few leaps and bounds on the barn thus far. One of those being a cozy fireplace. Who has two thumbs and needs a fireplace in a barn??? ....This girl!!

I am a sucker for a fireplace. I was sad to hear of all the original ones the previous owner had removed from our home. So what better place to inexpensivley add another?? Why...the barn of course!

This is the best before I could muster up. We removed the wood burning stove and Jason began framing up for the insert.

Here he is showing me what the insert would Look like installed. We were very fortunate to have this insert already. My sister ordered it off amazon for her master bedroom. When it came to her with the glass cracked, they mailed her a new one and told her to toss this one. Um....no! My brother in law replaced the glass and voila....free fireplace for me to hoard!

We kind of shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times due to my crazy indecisiveness. You see.....I couldn't decide if I wanted to add molding or do the whole thing ship lap. In the end we went with adding molding, it looked to puny and modern once we added the mantle.

I'm so glad we decided to do it that way. I wish I hadn't caused so many extra steps. But rather than live with it I knew I had to get it right. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and it would've driven me crazy. It's worth it to speak up and make it how YOU want it.

Speaking of mantles...this one used to be a bench we abandoned behind the goat pen when we moved here.

I had searched high and low for a unique piece. When I couldn't find anything to my liking I asked Jason to build a mantle. Luckily one evening I stumbled across this forgotten bench I had an "Aha!" moment.

He removed the legs and added a board along the back to use for mounting. Once he had notched out space in the trim....

He mounted it to the fireplace frame...

See what I mean?? To puny! Then he began beefing up the base to add the molding...

Once we decided on a pattern for our molding it did not take him long to knock it out. Then I began the tedious process of putty, sand and paint!

At this point I was giddy. I was totally mentally decorating it while we worked on other things. And now that it is done, I couldn't be more pleased with it.

I used a few odds and ends that I have collected to dress her up temporarily.

Jason had a few anchors and oars left over from a boat he sold recently. Perfect for a free summer themed mantle.

Jason purchased this sign at one of the million antique shows I have dragged him to. He knows what I like!! And the green olive urns were given to me by one of the lovely ladies who joined me for our barn sale last month.

This bucket was another Jason find and it is also filled with left over boat remnants. The chaor was a gift from one of the other ladies at the barn sale (they are such sweet hearts and they know the goodies I love). Aren't these shutters gorgeous? I just loved this shade of blue!

And there you have it! A long over due reveal of our barn fireplace! I apologize again for taking so long. We are making great strides on the barn given the limited budget and time we have.

Several people have asked me what our plans are for the barn. The truth is, I really don't know. I dream of several things for this place. Antique sales....weddings...family gatherings....Christmas parties. More than anything, I think of it as an extension of our home. One more place for us to gather and create memories. Who knows what it could evolve into??

Have a great day friends! Thanks for stopping by!! Trinity