Airstone Tile for fireplace Makeover

Thanks for Airstone for sponsoring this post!

Im so excited to finally share my huge fireplace makeover. It is often half-done for a time today, but today I finally finished it and took some fast photos. But before I get fully expose, i needed to remind you associated with the ‘before.’ This is just what the hearth appeared to be when we purchased your house:
Pretty nondescript, and I also always believed like the mantle had been excessive compared to the fireplace starting. There was something maybe not right aided by the proportions. I've been performing my better to assist that extra gap through swags and banners when We decorate the hearth, however it is always a truly obvious huge empty open area. Listed here is this year’s fall mantelscape including. Others thing used to don’t like about this had been the travertine blends in with all the wall surface and also the mantel. it really is one monochromatic expanse. I knew that redoing the fireplace with standard methods would be a very costly, so I”ve already been putting it down.

Then again I saw this product at Lowe’s and I had a lightning bolt moment. I really could make use of FAUX rock to get the look of a stone hearth, but minus the expense or hassle of installing an actual stone fireplace. Therefore I contacted individuals at Airstone and so they sent me personally some boxes to test. I'd make use of Airstone once again in a heartbeat. I was able to completely transform my entire fireplace in less than 5 hours. It seems and feels as though genuine stone, only it really is super lightweight (it reminds me of pumice-stone) and cuts with a hand saw. No elegant resources required.

I could have connected the rock straight to the travertine, but i needed not to keep it as flush into the wall surface as you are able to so the very first thing I experienced doing ended up being pull down the old tile. It was undoubtedly the worst area of the the task:
The tile performedn’t need come off the backer board, thus I finished up having to remove and replace it.. EACH OF IT. it absolutely was a huge mess.
When I got it all down, I experienced to restore the backer board and spot all seams:
The remainder had been smooth sailing.

I got 2 containers of all-natural advantage stone (indicating the sides had been completed to appear like cut stone) and 1 field of level edge (which are used alongside together for interiors seams just.) The boxes come sorted to the different colors (I was utilizing the Autumn Mountain collection which can be browns and tans) therefore I needed to formulate most of the stones ahead of time to obtain the proper mixture of colors and ensure all my unfinished sides were made up of the natural edge stones.

For this I measured my surround and mapped it on the floor in painters tape (since I couldn’t lay all of them from the wall vertically.)I put (and adjusted) all of the specific rocks until i acquired a look I happened to be happy with:
In addition could cut-down the stones to match the room now. To reduce Airstone, you only require a hacksaw. We never also needed to leave the family area. We used a miter field mainly therefore I wouldn’t reduce into my wood flooring. You don’t have to use one:
Keep in mind when cutting, you will need to conceal the slice advantage on an internal seam, you constantly want the all-natural finished edge becoming exposed. It took sometime, but ultimately We went around all the sides and got every little thing dried out fitted.
Upcoming had been the particular installation, and if you are able to butter toast, you can easily install these things. Its less complicated than regular tile. You simply ‘back butter’ the average person tiles and smoosh them (technical term) into spot. Back-buttering can be like it sounds: Slathering on a thick later of glue towards the back of tile:
I started at the end of one part and worked my way up, permitting the last row to guide the extra weight of this line above it. This component moved truly fast. We most likely go all the tiles stuck-up indeed there within just 2 hours.
One difficult location ended up being the line over the hearth orifice. The rocks desired to slide along the hearth, and so I utilized my old window to prop all of them up. Worked like a dream:
Ultimately I-go into the top line and it ended up being complete. **Note: If only I experienced put in my corbels now and put the rock around them. I didn’t keep these things during the time (they certainly were custom ordered) and so I plowed forward without all of them therefore the final result is not as great.The smaller rocks and varying colors do separation the area above the fireplace orifice, therefore it looks much more proportional. Some tips about what it looks like decked out with for fall:
It seemed great. I like exactly how rustic it arrived and I might have ended truth be told there but predicated on previous experience I understood i needed to incorporate corbels.