April Project Highlight

Every room needs a focal point, a place for people to gather— or else your guests just end up floating like lost planets looking for something to orbit!  For kitchens, it’s the island or the table. In the backyard, people gather around the fire pit or patio furniture. And, for the living room, it’s usually the television.

In the case of one of our current projects, our clients wanted a gathering space in their living room that gave them multilayers of function and beauty. In order to achieve that, we partnered with talented designer, Amber Etzel of MP3, who recreated a fireplace/television surround for a timeless and cozy space to enjoy for decades to come.  Amber shared this with us,

“For this project, we wanted to make some simple upgrades that would add character and interest to the space without going through an extensive remodel. We thought the biggest impact would come from addressing the flat, unexciting fireplace. By building out the fireplace and cladding it in large scale, textural tile, we were able to create a focal point while adding dimension to the space.”

The Living Space Before the Fireplace Renovation

As you can see, there was an existing fireplace here before, but it was lacking character and practicality in its positioning in the room. Adding a TV above the fireplace created an additional focal point.

Construction Phase – Developing the Fireplace as the Focal Point

One of the challenges was placing the underlying pieces before adding the finishing products. This is our specialty, functionality and design working together in harmony.

No Tiles Were Harmed in the Making of This Fireplace!

Another, larger challenge that we faced was placing the tiles without cutting a single one horizontally in half. We did that by continually adjusting the width to the grout lines, and it worked out perfectly. A little planning, a lot of measuring, and the client was extremely happy with the end result of this “Transitional Design” fireplace. Our goal was to represent the fireplace surround exactly as Amber had drawn it with full tile pieces from top to bottom of the façade.

This project reminds us that you don’t need to remodel an entire room to make the space feel completely different. Even small projects can have a huge impact.

– Tim and the Purcell Team