Mantle Makeover

I'm digging my 'new' fireplace. :)

Here's how it looked shortly after move-in day:

This is how I had it decorated this morning......

But thanks to all of your advice, I finally took the plunge and painted our bricks WHITE this afternoon!

The things on the mantle required some DIY projects, so I'll show those to you, too.

In the left-hand photo below, you'll see the brass fireplace things (what are they called? grates? fireplace pillars? fireplace guards? c'mon, they've gotta have an official name).... I found those in my basement, covered in dust and cobwebs. Nothing a little chrome spray paint from Rustoleum can't handle (after I wiped them down well, of course):

Here's a close-up of my drawing on the mantle. The frame was originally brown, the inner layer of matting was burgundy and the outer matting was cream, but I sprayed it all black. I did the drawing with my skinniest ink pen on white cardstock.
I spent a good 15 minutes -- no exaggerating -- agonizing over what kind of fake flower or plant to get at Michaels for that white vase on the end of the mantle. The kind I finally chose was %40 off, so it only ended up costing $4 for a pretty thick sprig. It came with bright green leaves, which I found to look a little too fake, so I just pulled them off. But you can see the leaves here:

This is one of my favorite elements of my new mantle. This round navy vase that I got from Goodwill underwent a transformation:

And here is the cost breakdown for all of the things I used. (Remember my candlesticks?)
Just around $35, since I already owned all the paint and supplies.

Much better:

My brother came over a few weeks ago and assessed the mirror situation. I think we'll leave it up for now, even though we might have discovered a way to remove it if we want to. And I hope he'll help me build a frame to at least give it a more updated feel.

So, the mirror frame will probably be the last step for a while, otherwise, this is just about done. My brother also measured on either side of the fireplace for if/when we ever want to put shelves in, which I would LOVE to do, but I would rather spend my money on a new couch or something at this point. Shelves come later. :)

(Oh and P.S. we have fake plants because my cat, Conn, will seek out all live foliage and eat it... then throw it up. On my hardwood. Idiot.)