Stained and Still Kicking

By far the most popular post I have ever done (possibly definitely helped by the big promo by the lovely Pam), heck you may have found my little ole blog because of it, was my fireplace beautification post.  Ummm, it seems that pictures of it it even made it onto pinterest without me even knowing it!!?

Well, we stained the brick dark grey last November, and I bet all you f-ugly brick owning people out there are wondering how it's doing today.  Over the last 10-ish months we have certainly put that brick through it's paces - have I ever mentioned my dear hubby's fire obsession?  Hmmm, I don't think so.... but to keep it short, let's just say that having the fire going 6 evenings a week would not be a rare occurrence in our household - the fires are for ambiance not heat (yes, we do live in Canada... but no, it's not -1 million degrees here like many think, and... our fireplace being a 1961 special lets more heat out than the fire creates, even after sealing up the whooping great cracks).

But, I digress.  The big question is, how has our $30 face lift held up?? 

 Amazingly!!  I still want to hug it on an almost daily basis (yup, I mentally hug my fireplace and my outdoor light.  Yeah... I'm weird, I know!)

It looks as good now as it did just after we first applied it.  We have seen no fading/change in the colour, bubbling, peeling... nothing!

All that we have changed is added some art (yeah, it's not Christmas all year round around here!), which is unfortunately hard to photograph thanks to the abundance of windows in our living room (wah wah wah, I know I know natural light is not something to complain about!)

Would we do it again?   Heck yeah, not only do we still love it, we still have friends and family come over and marvel at how great it looks.  I only wish we'd followed our gut instinct earlier instead of waiting a year before pulling the trigger!