When we first bought our home, we were excited about the fact that it had a fireplace. But we were not excited about the hideous stucco texture all over the hearth/mantle and the painted black brick work.
I promise the picture isn't doing the nasty, rough, stucco texture justice. But trust me... if you brushed up against it, it would make you bleed.
My husband suggested building a fancy wood mantle encasement, which would be extremely lovely except for the fact that there were a gazillion more things to do around the house that were demanding the little time and money we had. We could live with the fireplace as-is.... for awhile anyway.
And then, quite randomly, I came across this awesome textured wallpaper from Graham & Brown ( $19 for 56 sq/ft).
It was so lovely that I bought a roll of it without quite knowing what I was going to do with it... just that I had to have it. And then a few days later, I had the crazy idea of using it on our mantle! Even though the paper came pre-pasted, I opted to buy separate heavy-duty wallpaper paste to make sure it stayed.
I commenced to sanding down as much of the horrid stucco texture as possible. I measured and cut the paper to fit the mantle and covered the back of each piece with paste. Being careful to line up the seams/design and smooth any air bubbles out, the paper went up much easier than anticipated. And I really like the results!
It really fits the decor of our home and mimics fancy stamped stonework. And I still have more than half the roll left! So, for about $8 I changed the face of our hearth.
After that I became a believer in textured wallpaper. Since then I scored some "bead-board" style paper and have used it as budget-friendly wainscoting in our bathroom:
then added a vintage cottage feel to our interior doors:
And pasted it througout my entire sewing room:
For a fraction of the cost of fancy stonework or real bead-board, I was able to bring some warmth and character to our little home.
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