After my slight error of judgement in my last post, I thought I should rather redeem myself today that not all my decorating decisions end up with a smug boyfriend mouthing, ‘I-told-you-so’.  Sometimes, in fact, they end rather well.

Remember this post? I So Wood: Decorative Logs (Part I)

No?  Well, I’m not surprised really.  Way way back in January, I discussed the possibility of filling my fireplace in my lounge with a bunch of these sexy things.

Ya see, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the horrible hole in my fireplace since we moved in.  I’ve created vignette after vignette and could never seem to get the balance right.  It just looked awkward.

Installing a proper fireplace is most definitely on my wish list but it will cost us hundreds of pounds to get the look I want and right now, our priorities are elsewhere.  So I consider this an option to buy time until the day when we finally get around to putting in a real working fireplace.  Which, considering our to-do list, probably won’t happen until 2014.

So it’s only taken me 10 months to finally just take the plunge and order up a bunch of logs.

Here’s what it was looking like in preparation for the delivery.  I painted the concrete slab white as it was, well, concrete coloured* and rather stained and ugly.  I also added the ceramic artichoke finials (from Homesense) to add a punch of colour and replace the candle holders that used to be there.

*That’s totally a colour.

There are a couple of companies that make decorative logs but I decided to order them from The Little Log Company.  The quality of wood was beautiful.  I ordered the Spruce and Scots Pine mix (they’ve got a few different kinds to choose from) and they even stain them to order.  I had mine stained Walnut but they have lots of different stains to choose from and you can even mix and match colours.

Here’s what it looks like now.

The wood is beautiful – all perfectly lovely with the odd one having a bit of a natural split.  The wood is smooth and solid too – no splinters off these puppies.  They were expensive for what’s essentially just some logs but you can see that you get what you pay for.  And what you don’t pay for as well (ie BUGS AND CREEPY CRAWLIES. Arghhh!)! 

There’s also a nice little calculator on the site that allows you to figure out how much wood you need based upon the size of the space you are filling.  Handy.  Although getting them to fit without big gaps was a little like putting a jigsaw together when you’ve lost the box to see what it’s supposed to look like at the end.  I’ll probably be taking them out and reconfiguring them to see if I can get them to fit better (or I might just leave it to W, he loves shit like that).

As you can see, I had a few little logs left over so I left them piled up on the hearth.

I love the way it looks now and it’s added a lovely textural element to the room which I think warms up the space even without a fire!

Oh, and this is about as Halloween as I get around these parts.  Saying that, I love it so it’ll probably stay long after Halloween has ended.*  I got the gold skull from Urban Outfitters.

Update:  About 10 minutes after completing this post, W told me he really hates the skull.  Sigh.  Can’t win for trying around these parts.

There are a few more changes to come in the living room which I’ll be sharing soon, mostly around getting in some extra seating!  Not only to replace the black chair that is now living in the man cave, but on the opposite side of the room as well where W’s old coffee table resides.

I know we’ve got other projects on the go at the moment but these kinds of items are more outright purchases and well, I’ve got a couple of good reasons to spend a few quid now to get the room complete.

A couple little announcements around those reasons are soon to come too ;)  Stay tuned.

In the meantime, what do you think?  Have you ever used decorative logs that were only meant for pretty and not actually for burning?

*This is not a sponsored post by the way.  I’m just a happy customer.


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