When we first moved into our 1929 house almost 4 years ago, we sacrificed having a fireplace for many other benefits of our cute little Cottage Tudor.

We knew there was once a fireplace.

We also knew that it was taken out {or covered over} to add a wall for an additional room in our smaller house.

Before we moved in, we knocked down that wall and added in shiplap. I always struggled with decorating this space. Nothing ever felt right.

We had hopes of one day uncovering it.

After redoing our flooring, we were finally ready to see what was behind the drywall.

It was beautiful. And also terrifying. A lot more of the original structure had been removed then we were hoping. But we started the journey of adding a fireplace back in and we were excited. For months, we lived with the opening and seeing the original brick and that view alone was so much better then before.

But we knew we wanted a working fireplace by the time the weather cooled down and I wanted a place to hang our stockings at Christmas.

After a lot more work than we originally hoped for and a few more dollars, we finally had a working fireplace.

We chose used bricks from an old building, a messy grout look, and changed the direction of the bricks above the mantel for a fun effect.

All that was left was a mantel.

I had dreams of finding an old piece of wood that would pair perfectly with the old brick. We found some, but the price made my head 🤯, especially after spending more on the structure of the fireplace. We decided to make our own! And for $12!!!!!! You heard that right....$12 and we have the perfect missing piece to the fireplace puzzle.

More on the mantel later and how we did that, but for now, let's just enjoy this space...and baby boy making an appearance.

If you made it to the end, thank you for being here and coming along this journey with me. Mean it!

with love, andi