Nerve Endings Firing Away

We are building a home in Texas; our very first starter home. We were brave and opted for daffodil yellow walls which look quite striking with glossy ultra white trims and crown moldings. However, the builder built the fireplace with cream-colored stone. As you see, we opted for a minimalist white mantle to go with the overall theme of the house.

  

But what do we do with the stone fireplace? Can we paint the stone white? I would’ve preferred a smooth white masonry finish but we are stuck with this for now. Any suggestions as to how we can make the stone as white as possible will be greatly appreciated.

I sent the above question to Apartment Therapy for their ‘Good Questions’ section and they featured it today in their Los Angeles section. The question generated 62 comments at the last count and plenty of excellent suggestions were offered. However, responses to the primary question whether to paint the stone fireplace or not was split right down the middle.

Ash and I have decided to wait until we move in and see rest of the stuff fits in before making a final decision. Right now, we are leaning toward letting the stone be and changing the mantle at a later date. The existing one didn’t turn out as we had hoped to since the builder didn’t get what we were trying to achieve and now it is too expensive and time-consuming to replace.

However, if you have an opinion please feel free to share it in the comments.

PS. The yellow isn’t actually that bright as seen in the photograph.