Fireplace Progress

Real progress has been made on the fireplace remodel, yay!  It's been physically and mentally tiring, but so worth it.  I've just got the grouting to do and voila.  Now which grout to use?  I read that you should use unsanded grout on marble because sanded could scratch the surface, but I find sanded to be much easier to work with (it tends to settle nicely in the joints).  I think I'll have to do some more research.  In the meantime, here's some sneak peek piccys.

I had a bit of a crisis moment on Thursday when I thought I didn't have enough of the herringbone tile.  Warning to you all, 12 by 12 tile is not exactly 12 inches.  I'd ordered 4 square feet thinking that I only needed 3.  But it soon became apparent that I may have to order some more which would delay the project by a week.  It was also really tricky lining up the sides with the top because nothing is square!  In the end I managed to piece together the tile like a huge jigsaw puzzle.  So you'll see the grout lines aren't exactly perfect in some places, but hoping that it won't notice once it's been grouted.

Here's how much tile I had left over, I really don't believe in waste! (but next time I think I'll err on the side of caution and order more than I think I'll need).

So for a less than $200 and a little bit of time (OK a lot) and some stress, I've managed to create what I think is an elegant and timeless fireplace surround.

See if you can spot what's missing from the mantel.  To see before pictures go here.

*update*

Here's some recent pictures of the mantel