Shabby Chic Cabin Chimney Update

I think that I have finished the chimney on the Shabby Chic Cabin project.  I'm very pleased with the way it turned out.  You may recall that I made the "stones" from textured recycled packing cartons, it is similar to egg cartons but more textured.

 After all of the stonework was complete, I painted each of the stones with craft paint.  I did receive advice that it was important to seal the work.  I understand why because the material starts to get a little mushy when it gets wet.  I ended up sealing with Mod Podge.  (I used mat finish)

Here is a picture of the Mod Podge drying.

The next day, I started the grouting process.  I made a mixture of fast drying spackle, craft paint, some craft glue and a little water.  I worked the mixture into each of the crevices with some clay working tools and wiped off the excess. 

I had used this process in the past with some thick paper brick and it wiped off the brick pretty easily, however, the textured stone on this project was more textured and it didn't really wipe off.  I started with Kleenex, them moved to paper towels, then wet paper towels, (which started to become one with the stone) so I switched to damp rags.  To be honest I was starting to worry.  Luckily the walls are covered in vinyl flooring.  

I also used painters tape to tape off the roof as I worked my way around the top of the chimney.

So here is what I ended up with.  You can see that some of the stones were starting to become mush (towards the bottom).  I figured that I would just let it dry and see what happens.

The next day - the grout looks good, I was modeling the stonework after the inspiration photos below (from Pinterest) I was thinking that It just looks like the stone was white- washed, so I decided to touch up the stonework with some paint.

I used light washes of craft paint in browns and grays to try and match the photos.  It turned out pretty great!

I decided to drill holes for the chimney pots rather than just glue them on top.  I may or may not have started singing Chim-Chimney-Chim-Chim-Cher-ee at this point - wondering how Bert would clean this fireplace?

I decided to go with small wooden spools for the chimney pots.  I drilled the holes larger and painted them a metallic color, then tamed that down with some brown washes - the same technique that I used on the roof.

Here is the bird's eye view

And here it is all finished!