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make overtime.....

In amongst preparing for birthday celebrations and sorting out stuff for a brief encounter with the Canaries next week I decided to try a makeover for our fireplace surround in our living room.  We live in rented property so decorating and changing major features isn't always simple or feasible - anything done has to be able to be taken back to how it was before I got my grubby mits on it!!

The fire surround is a dominant feature in the room. I think its probably original to the house being built in 1924, its very typical of the style seen everywhere beige and brown marbled tiles quite uninspiring but in our case the actual surround is a lovely rounded shape - very pleasing to the eye and it makes up for its unprepossessing colours.

Taking some inspiration from a blog I am following, Jigglemawiggle (really worth a look for recycling home ideas) - using some old OH acetates and photoshop, I sourced some en-caustic tile designs from the internet and scaled them to the right size to fit on the tiles - printed them and using doubled sided tape I 'retiled' the fireplace.  I left the top alone as its always covered with stuff anyway and obviously it was not practical to do the hearth as we use the fire everyday we need to, but I am really pleased with the end result.  I think sticking to the colours already prominent and using two matching but very simple designs made it work... I was tempted to go for glorious colour but this time I think muted works!!!

It will be interesting to see how they stand up to wear and tear - how long they last, but for the time being it is a cheap and cheerful way to revamp a pleasant but dated feature.


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