Back to the Living room and the fireplace dilemma

In the living room we firstly decided to start at the top by tackling the oppressive wood lurking above our heads. It seemed that the easiest thing to do was to paint the ceiling white. Turns out, four coats and multiple hand blisters later, this wasn't going to be such a simple fix after all. We did it though (but please don't make me do it again).

Next we moved on to the walls. Removing the artex was far too scary an option so we've gone mad with the plasterboard. As you can see from the photo, Craig works at a super fast speed. We are now proud owners of smooth walls. It's the small things in life that make you happy...

Now what to do with the most dominant feature of the room, the fireplace? Do we go with the stone clad countryfied look?  Perhaps paint/limewash it? Or more plaster to make it nice and smooth? We could even grab a sledgehammer and take out some of life's frustrations on it? After our rough road recently the latter quite appealed to me but in the end I was too worried that I would bring the whole house down crashing around my ears. It's been a tough call to know what's achievable here, so I turned to the net for inspiration and advice.

Source: alifesdesign.blogspot.com via Audrey on Pinterest

Source: style-files.com via Audrey on Pinterest

Note the common themes here - chunky wood and antlers! I might keep this in mind. Well, it would be interesting to know which one you prefer, but we've cracked on deciding that the stonework really must go. We then made the wise move (not like us, I know) and decided that this was a job for the professionals. The plasterer is currently busy at work but here is a wee taster of how it looks so far. I better go and make him a cup of tea -'three sugars please'.