Salisbury Designs

This project was so easy + makes such a big impact! I added this stand alone fireplace top to an existing fireplace furniture piece we already had and it makes the space feel so much more grand & complete. I just used some 2x3’s for a frame, a sheet of utility plywood, some cedar lath + Minwax Dark Walnut stain to make it all (for around $60!) and then just hammered it into place to sit on top of the fireplace. I added can lights to make it look cuter & a frame I need to add a family photo to. I can still remove the whole top when I finally paint the wall behind it or want to move it at any point. I also added the leftover plywood to the header across the stairwell to make it look like a faux beam + match the dark wood wall. I love the look of all the dark wood in our basement with the complimenting dark green (Valspar Belmont Green) + brown (Valspar Milk Chocolate) colors, so I just need to decide what color to paint this last wall next. The design of the fireplace was measured + matches the trim wall next to it perfectly so they match & it looks so traditional colonial New England style to me, which is my heart since I grew up in CT. Since the weather is just starting to turn here in CO, I’m so excited to sit by this cozy fire when it’s cold out 🔥

Another beautiful shiplap wall done in my college friend’s home here in CO. Her home has lots of outdated bumps & angles so we’ve been slowly squaring off different walls to make them all more modern + cohesive. She now has a beautiful white shiplap fireplace wall (which used to be lots of weird cuts out & bump outs), dining room wall and feature wall in the hallway between them both that she’ll be adding cute hooks to for bag packs + bags. It looks so much more modern just being a more square shape because the wall was rounded a bit before. We had to angle some of the shiplap to make it square along the wall angle, caulked the edges & I used the jigsaw to cut around the doorbell + thermostat so it all looks perfectly part of the wall. I love how crisp & clean the lines look now and how it matches with the other walls in her lovely home 🤍

I was going to wait to build a top for our basement fireplace until we knew exactly where we wanted it to be, but then I decided to make it a stand alone box that we could move wherever the fireplace goes so I started on it. I made a standing frame out of 2x3’s screwed into each other because I didn’t want it to be too big or heavy. Then I cut down a thin utility sheet of plywood to cover the front + sides of the frame and took down the old cedar lath pieces from the current wall to make the same design that’s on the wall next to it. I’ll be sanding the cedar & staining it all to match the bottom of the fireplace soon, but am also using the leftovers to remake the faux beam coming into the basement so stay tuned to see it all come together!