Summer Mantel and Fireplace Ideas

This week I finally got around to taking down the springtime/ Easter decorations on the mantel.  I know, I know.  We are solidly in summer.  It was ridiculous.  I decided to go with a colorful, beachy vibe for the summer mantel.  And since I was taking photos and thinking about it, I decided to do some awesome crude mockups of how I can revamp the fireplace.  These are my fireplace ideas.

But first, the mantel.  I couple favorites this season are the birds in the nest.  I got the nest jar for my birthday from some great friends.  It actually has the green bunny as its top (you can see the bunny above), but I thought the birds would be cute for summertime.

I also have my white bunnies front and center.  These are a favorite possession of mine.  When we left Azerbaijan quickly and unexpectedly, our lovely host family gave them to us.  They were always on display in their home, and it really means so much to me that they gifted them to us.  They are usually, if not always, on our mantel.Now on to some ideas.  I have wanted to do something with the fireplace since we moved in.  You might remember that we used to have a big ugly woodstove in the fireplace (you can see it in the photos here).  That’s been gone for about a year, and we’ve just been living with the empty fireplace.

I think the first step will be to paint the inside of the fireplace.  Black, gray, or white, I suppose.  Here’s what it looks like now:

I think painting the inside black would look the best, because then it would draw attention to whatever we put inside.  Some ideas for what to put inside are a big bowl, like this one shaped like a shell:Or some logs on their side.  I’ve seen this done a lot, but I came across this cool idea on The Art of Doing Stuff, and did a little mockup of how it would look in our fireplace (the image of the logs is their photo, I just edited it into my fireplace):

I think that’s really fun, and it would be cool to do different colors for different seasons, or just have them all painted in bright metallics.

Next, I tried to see what it would look like if we painted the bricks, or installed white tiles over them. For fun, I threw some logs and a grate in the fireplace.  Seriously amazing photoshopping here, folks.

One thing that I’ve wanted to do for a while is sew up a long cushion for the whole fireplace.  Here’s what that would look like in blue:

That reminded me of Young House Love’s amazing fireplace makeover, so I cropped their fireplace and added it to my living room.

Obviously, this is a totally different fireplace that goes to the ground, so we’d have to do things differently.  This is also the most drastic since we’d be covering all the bricks and installing tile and building a whole new mantelpiece.

What do you think?  Any other ideas out there?  Please leave me a comment with your favorite fireplace makeover, or some compliments on my photoshopping skills!