V and Co: before and after: the mantle

 last week i sort of hinted that i was painting again on facebook. 
this has been an ongoing "discussion" (aka me bringing up something over and over and OVER again and jake sidestepping and dismissing and changing the subject, in hopes that i would just.give.it.up. yeah, ahem, i didn't.)

okay so since moving into our home...i've struggled to decorate it. first off i've not had that much time in the house, and second, i've not had enough extra down time to well...do too much in the decorating side of things.
and to tell you the truth my biggest road block: our current living room.
i didn't like it.
aside from the two big windows...it doesn't have a ton of light coming in. 
and well on top of not getting a ton of light:
the color on the walls. eh.
the mantle wood. eh.
basically there's is soooo much brown and eh.
oh i know "boohoo, you have a new house your husband found a job he loves, and you are complaining about the living room having too much brown?"
i know i felt ungrateful too.
trust me.
and i tried and tried to let it go.
but when you are in a house all day long. somethings that start out as "eh's" turn into "oh my gosh i HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!"
and well jake said: "will it make you shut up happy to paint the fireplace?"
he didn't have to say it twice i was out like flash and i bought the supplies i needed.

first i called my next door neighbor and enlisted her help, you know the one that already thinks i'm crazy for taking her out on a hot humid summer's day to take pictures in front of a bale of hay. yeah her. she's real nice and keeps saying yes to my "adventures" so i figured lets give her another try.
she said yes. :)
second, i taped off around the fireplace.
then i lightly sanded the whole thing down.

now the paint.
the husband said to look for trim and door paint.
and so i found it.
(okay so before i go any further i have to say this: this is in no way shape or form a paid post. it is me all me and just my experience and opinion of this paint. okay moving on...)
glidden extra high gloss for trim and door promises no drips and no brush marks.
they are true on that. in the end there are no drips and no brush marks.

with one coat of paint

at the store their little display said "our one coat vs their one coat" and it looked like it would totally cover my mantle in one coat.
verdict: uh no, if i left it at the first coat it would of looked like a 3 year old tried to paint my fire place with Elmer's glue.
but the second coat went on better.
here's the deal though. it's an oil base paint, and its super tacky to paint with.
we waited 24 hours before painting a second coat.

the second coat went on super smooth and easy.
but i had to put a third coat on a few little tricky places.
for this project i used only one quart of paint (and i still have some left over)

all in all the experience was a good one with the paint. totally worth it (it's kind of expensive) and i think it helped with the room. i know it did with my spirits.

and yeah i know i have no "fluff" yet in this room.
it's all kind of boring.
but it's a step in the right direction.

i took care of one my "eh's"

next on the table:
wall paint.
don't know when but i'm thinking soon, as the hours in the day get shorter and shorter and i NEED "lighter". yeah i think i'm going with a lighter tint. :)
thoughts?