Egg carton stones

Yesterday I decided to finish off the fireplaces with the edging I'd been planning: egg carton stones.

I link to some great tutorials from This Post, if you want to see people do this really, really well, and paint them, and give you directions and stuff :)

This isn't really a tutorial, because there's not much more that I can say about this topic than:

1. Get a paper egg carton (preferably with a flat top)
2. Cut out shapes
3. Glue them in place
4. Have a gin and tonic (or refreshing beverage of choice

The process of cutting out shapes to fit around these fireplaces was a bit like being given a jigsaw with missing pieces and then cutting replacement pieces out of egg cartons.  I'm sure there's a better, more methodical way to do this than the way I did it, which was to eyeball it, cut out shapes, and keep paring them down until the pieces either fit or I totally ruined them.

Actually it was kind of fun!

Here's what the kitchen looks like with the new stone edging around the three hearths.  (Actually this photo drove me insane, because the edging around the bake ovens was concave on the left side, and I trimmed it down with an exacto knife until it looked less wonky :)  I don't actually like the job I did on the charcoal burner unit very much, so I'm not going to take any close ups of it!

 

The rest looks okay.  I even like the colour at the moment, although I may mess with it later.  This stuff is amazing -- the texture is absolutely perfect for stone.  I'm sure most of you know Cynthia, of Cynthia's Minilife, who has transformed a Beacon Hill kit into a stunning Second Empire mansion.  One of the things that makes it so gorgeous are the egg carton stones she's used on the exterior.  Check it out, if you don't already know her lovely blog!