We have a double-sided fireplace in the middle of our living/dining/kitchen space. Here’s the view from the dining area. The living room is beyond it to the left, the kitchen is off to the right. (That’s the edge of the pantry on the right of the picture.)

Here’s how it looks from the living room, I took this picture standing near the front door. (Sorry about the mess, we’re being really slow about finding places for all of our stuff. And yes, that is yarn stretched across the floor to the right: the kitties got into my crafting supplies.)

I actually love the placement, it’s going to be especially awesome if we can get it working in the winter. (It has a gas line going in, but other than that we have no idea about it’s functionality.) It’s the first thing you see when you walk in the front door, or the back door for that matter. When we toured the house, my first thought was, “cool… not my style or color preference, but a neat focal point.” But then I took a closer look:

Yeah… it’s not actually brick. Or rather, if you look up the inside of the fireplace, there’s real brick in there. But the outside is just a facade. As someone who grew up in a red brick house with a red brick fireplace, I was seriously offended.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look overtly bad, like the beige walls and trim, nor does it lack necessary function, like the kitchen cabinets. So for now redoing the fireplace facade is pretty low on our to-do list. My eye is no longer twitching every time I walk by it, so I suppose I’m even getting used to it. I do enjoy daydreaming about how we’re going to fix it up though… slate tiles maybe?