In previous blogs about my empty apartment-makeover, you’ve seen the pretty fireplace but until now, I’ve been hiding its ugly twin from you. It’s a cookie-cutter cherry marble fireplace that has been boarded over with faux marble, and it’s been looming in our master bedroom since the former homeowner left. We knew it was probably covered for a reason, but we had to find out for ourselves. When our handyman Vince was over fixing up a few things, we asked him to add, “dismantling the fireplace” to the list. Vince pried the face off, and he phoned us immediately, “Your only choice is to cover this thing back up.” It turns out that our former chimney had imploded about fifty years back and its rubble and soot was still preserved behind this faux marble. It was the dirtiest, most daunting sight I’d ever seen. I am not going to lie. I was with Vince, but my man Mike was determined to excavate. I’ll thank him now, but at the time I thought he was crazy—mainly because I was his main source of labor. The project at hand consisted of removing hundreds of pounds of debris, carrying it down three flights of stairs, chipping away the plaster fireplace surround, exposing the brick behind it, and sanding down the concrete remains—not exactly items on my home design résumé. Though skeptical, I too saw glimmers of an exposed brick fireplace filled with candles at the foot of our bed, and before you knew it, I was at Home Depot buying buckets and respiratory masks.
Above, the picture of the fireplace as the previous homeowner had it. Below, are pictures of the project in its many phases throughout the excavation.
Removing the fallen rubble was exhausting but easy compared to dislodging the bricks at the top of the chimney. Mike and our brave friend, Scott, knocked the remains down with the longest pole we had handy: a golf ball retriever. Only Mike got pelted with a falling brick (his arm is slightly bruised, but he says it was worth it).
This is our fireplace, free of the imploded chimney, and me trying to clean up the concrete-speckled bricks. We did this by attaching a wire wheel to the end of a drill. A wire wheel, if you don’t know (because I didn’t), looks like the roughest Brillo pad ever created, and when it spins at top speed, it can pulverize concrete. We went over each brick until the bricks were smooth and red again.
After eight hours of hauling brick and breathing soot, we have a second “pretty” fireplace. Though we have plans to add a proper surround, we are going to revel in its new “clean and clear” look for a while.
In designing our new apartment, a lot of elements are still fuzzy but one thing I’ve always known is: Each bedroom will have a wallpapered accent wall. Maybe this is because wallpapering is practically forbidden in the land of renters, but it is most of all an excuse for wild pattern. If placed right, it can be the surprise in the room. I chose two fantastically bold prints but put them on the least visible wall, so you have to round a corner or do a 180 to notice them.
For the guest bedroom accent wall, the shimmer and pop of 
I had the papers picked out for months but the motivation to hang them didn’t come as quickly. The more I read up on the topic and the more I talked to those who’ve wallpapered, I felt the consensus was: Get help. Even Good Housekeeping: The Complete Household Handbook, a publication known for its consumer empowerment, suggests hiring a professional! Nervous but not discouraged, we bought the supplies, primed the wall, cut the paper to size, then plumbed, pasted, booked, hung, shifted, smoothed, trimmed, and sponged until it was done at one o’ clock in the morning. And that was only one wall.
Albeit time consuming, the process is not as difficult as everyone made it out to be. It just takes an incredibly meticulous and patient person–thank you Mike for getting me through this–and a love of pattern.
