My quest for the perfect Spanish style fireplace

For about five years now I’ve been at a standstill with my fireplace. The home came with a basic brick fireplace (not the chic and modern kind, the 70s kind). At first I thought I would put some decorative Mexican or Spanish tile over the brick (For tile sources try Mission Tile West in Costa Mesa or Arto Brick in Gardena). Then I worried I would tire of the pattern in about a year and be stuck with a tile design I hated. My next idea was to do a curved, smooth white stucco fireplace (very traditional but modern at the same time)…but then I worried it would lack color and personality. Although it should be worth noting, the first time I saw this fireplace by JDP Interiors its beauty took my breath away.

JDP Interiors

I also found this genius fireplace design (Photo credit: Brian McCloud) that used terra-cotta tile typically used for flooring as the facade and thought “Wow that’s gorgeous.” I mean those shapes and how the white grout makes the variation of colors stand out and that rustic beam, wow....but I worried if it would be too brown for my house.

Design by Tama Bell

The latest idea I had was to paint our fireplace this dark, rich evergreen because I loved the color that Amber Lewis used in this Spanish style kitchen. Turns out it looks better on cabinets….and that I am not great on finishing DYI home projects (the paint color is: Dunn Edwards – Black Lead by the way). Also, to see more pictures from Amber Interiors #clientwhatsthestorySpanishGlory project click here.

So here we are, five years later with a partially painted fireplace that has never been used and I still haven’t settled on a design. Here’s why, I don’t really want a fireplace, we are not “fireplace” people. Aside from being able to hang Christmas stockings on them, they hold no practical value for me. If it’s cold, we’ll put on a sweater or turn on the heater. I also think the wall where it sits against should actually be a big window with a long beach seat. If we had plans to sell this house I would tell myself to keep the fireplace. "It’s weird not to have one," but we have no plans to ever leave and isn’t interior design ultimately about creating the space that works for you and your family? Isn’t brave design about choosing materials, patterns, and colors that speak to you regardless if they are popular or not? I never went to design school so I can’t tell you about color theory but here’s my personal theory,

Create the home that you want.

Don’t get too hung up on if everything goes or matches perfectly or “looks right” because then you’ll end up stuck. Life is messy and joyful and painful and beautiful and filled with a million miraculous moments and I don’t know about you but that’s what lights my fire.