Feel the Burn

It's probably only fair to my husband to etch in stone (figuratively) the hard time I gave him about a fireplace in the new house. I don't usually have the stones to ask for what I want but when I get an idea under my skin I sort of keep scratching at it until I satisfy my itch. Our house was not designed with a fireplace of any sort, but in the nice area we are building it's pretty standard and it's a pretty big house. I mean what the heck am I supposed to do with a giant formal living room wall? Also, I loved laying in front of the gas fireplace we had when I was a kid.

So I met with people. I picked at the budget and bugged our builder. I drove my husband nuts with my logical arguments. Now we won't freeze if the power goes out. Oh look, Roddy at Gale can plumb the gas line to the kitchen for an extra $200 so we can eat in the dark too! It will drive up the appraisal, etc.

I think he caved just to get me to be quiet, but I promise you won't regret it honey!

So our builder got it lined out with the county and it seems I get what I want. So now... what do I want?

I LOVE this fireplace from Hammers and High Heels.

I don't think I could do the super custom cabinets like they made but if the dimensions work I could hack something similar with pre-made kitchen cabinets from Lowe's. And the good news is we already have stone from a casino job Brandon worked on!

There's a lot more woodwork on this fireplace found here. It does look very clean though.

I saved this room from Jane Lockhart as a great frame of reference for our house because the living room will have vaulted ceilings. Though honestly I prefer for the stonework not to go all the way up. Which I suppose is good because we don't have enough.
 












In any case I'm so excited to include this feature in our home. Please tell me what styles you like, I'm all open for any input!