When Carmen called me a couple of months ago asking some questions about our Brick-Anew fireplace paint kit, we hit it off right away.  She described how she and her husband, John, had just bought a house in the suburbs of LA and how HGTV was filming in their new home for a new show in their “House Hunters” series.  She sent me a picture of her living room area and the old brick fireplace she was trying to figure out how to remodel.

The fireplace, made with bright red brick from the 1950’s, covered an entire wall.  She didn’t want to just slap a can of paint over the brick to cover it up but didn’t know what else to do on their limited budget’ and time frame. They had considered tearing out the fireplace and starting over.

I knew the fireplace had so much potential…it just needed a little work.  So it was off to LA to see if we could help!

 “What Do We Do With That Old, Outdated Fireplace?”

When we got to LA I was amazed that the traffic was as bad or worse than Atlanta!  But when we got out to the suburbs of Van Nuys, it was beautiful.  Carmen and John’s home, a 1950’s ranch style brick house, was on the end of their street with a wonderful, private lot.  I love old houses so I enjoyed walking around the property hearing them talk about their decorating and renovation plans.  HGTV’s crew was there working on converting a detached garage into a game room.  Oh, and the best part is that there’s a pool in back!

Seeing the fireplace for the first time in person, I noticed the roughness and ridges in the old brick.   The fireplace was about 80 square feet covering an entire back wall which really weighed down the room and caused it to heavy and dark.  What a shame since the room was really open and had lots of windows and doors opening out to an amazing pool and patio area!  Carmen had painted the walls a beautiful light, blue which seemed to help.  But we had at lot of work to do to take the fireplace from UGGG! To AHHH!

Part 1 of 3 of our HGTV House Hunters Home Renovation Fireplace Project