I absolutely hate hot weather, so there’s no time of year that makes me feel quite as giddy as the arrival of fall and, most importantly, fireplace season. Now that autumn is here, I’ve been thinking more about fireplace decor and looking for easy, affordable ways to dress up my own mantel. One previously featured fireplace redo from the Before & After archives that caught my eye is this brilliantly simple makeover that helped a dated fireplace look totally modern with just a few changes.
The fireplace started out with a muted palette of white and beige, which looked stark against the black hearth. Here’s how the DIYers behind the redo completed their makeover — and the trick they used to decorate it that I can’t stop thinking about.
Black paint does the heavy lifting.
The black hearth looked too stark against the old white mantel and beige tile surround, but that was an easy fix for the DIYers. The only change they made was painting the entire assembly black, which makes the fireplace look bigger and more modern.
The basket decor hides a $2 DIY in plain sight.
What really impressed me about this project, though, was the brilliant (and brilliantly simple!) hack for the basket collection hung above the mantel. That’s because interspersed with the baskets are $2 place mats customized with black spray paint. The DIY was a smart way to pad out an existing basket collection so that it didn’t feel too sparse.
I don’t have any baskets of my own to display, but I could see using a DIY like this to add a little texture to a more traditional gallery wall. You could make the painted designs as basic or as complicated as you want, and the color is totally customizable, too.
Want to try out this DIY for yourself? Here are some place mat options that can help you get the look.