While I Linger: Faux Fireplace Tutorial

As Summer says goodbye and Autumn makes its appearance, my thoughts turn away from warm beach days to all things home. The weather has been instrumental in helping me with the hard-for-me transition. Summers are so very short in New England.

This year I have an added incentive to get ready for the fall... I have a fireplace! Well, sort of. Originally, when the house was built it had a fireplace in the middle of what is now our living room.

By the time we became owners of the 200-ish year old home the fireplace was gone and a chimney was built on the outside wall, to service the oil furnace. Old houses have smaller rooms so finding a place for a real fireplace without major reconstruction is near impossible and definitely out of the budget.

Meanwhile, my inbox seemingly was being inudated with posts from bloggers I follow showing off their mantels for each season; tutorials on how to style them, ways to change them up and add to them... on and on and on. Delete, delete, delete... it was very sad. Doesn't it always seem like the thing that you can't have is the very thing EVERYONE else has? I know, I was coveting my neighbor's fireplace... I know! But the struggle was still real, after all where do I hang my Christmas stockings each year? I always dread that dilemma. I know, first world problem, But I had a remedy.

So, I decided this summer that I was gonna get me a fireplace. I started squirreling aways ideas. Remember this from the Pro.found Vintage Market post?

I scoured the internet, pinned all the faux fireplaces and mantels I liked. With a yardstick and a piece of chalk in hand I drew on the wall a rudimentary version of my fireplace. Mister is a visual guy so he needs to really see it; he needs something tangible in order to get on board. That's just the way we work. Once I had him committed to the idea I grabbed my graphing paper and drew it up. I want to make as little cuts as possible so we are going to work with standard widths to minimize the work.

(My preliminary supply list was tweaked a bit)

We found a set of corbels at a local antique store and I thought we would use them to support the mantel. When we tested it on the wall we realized that the whole thing would stick out too far on the wall, using up valuable space in our 10x11 foot dining room. The whole thing needs to be low profile. The corbels would have stuck out 8 into the room and then a mantel on top of that... too much.

So, a trip to our local home improvement store and the purchase of some lumber was the next step. I thought I was going to build this myself but Mister gets nervous when I try to use power tools. (He also has a hard time not being the one to use tools. Lucky me!) I want all the screws hidden. Even though everything was going to be painted white I still don't want to see or have to try to fill, sand and hide screws and nail heads. That meant we had to buy a Kreg pocket hole jig. We will use it for other projects but it did bump up the price of my project.

Materials:

2 6ft-1x8
1 4ft-1x10
2 6ft-1x6 (nicer, select wood-no knots)
2 6ft-1x3
7 6ft-1x2
1 6ft-1x6
Pocket screws
1 1/4" screws

pocket hole jig
fresh saw blade - these I did not include in the price of my project because they will be used elsewhere and you may already have them.

Step 1:
Fireplace surround base. Working from the backside of wood (that will sit against the wall-watch knots and imperfections on the face) we pocket screwed and glued the two 1x8x6 (cut to 52" in length) to either end of the 1x10x4 (cut down to 33" in length) forming a "U" shape. This will give our finished product a width of 48" on the wall. Remember wood widths are not true; 8" is really 7 1/2", 6" is really 5 1/2", etc.

Step 2:
Lay the 1x6x6 on top of the face of the 1x8s, down either side of the surround. Mark your length to exact of the 1x8's and cut, (approximately 52") We spaced these right in the middle, with even spacing on each edge. Glue in place, screw to secure from the backside. **Make sure your screws are only long enough to grab both layers of wood but not pierce through the top layer. We pre-drilled and countersunk 1 1/2" screws.

Step 3:
Build out the profile. We want this to stand out a bit from the wall but not too much. We used 1x2s for this set on edge. We cut each one to length; the outside and inside and top and bottom of the top plate. Pre-drill your holes to prevent splintering or cracking these small pieces. Glue edges and screw into place.

Step 4:
The middle top plate will have a small inset so we framed that portion out using the 1x3. These had to be cut to fit perfectly between the 1x6's. And that is it to the "surround" portion of the fireplace.

Step 5:
The mantel. We went back and forth on this as we don't want it to stick out too much. We went with a 6" depth (smaller than the corbels we purchased). We cut it to overhang the base by about 3 inches on either side. We finished the edge with 1x2s, mitering the corners and securing with wood glue and pocket screws. This gives the mantle a thicker look. We attached it to the base with more pocket screws so no evidence from the top!

Step 6:
Corbels. I still want to use these but how? They are about 3 inches thick! I wanted a curve-y something happening in the center to soften the very masculine table we purchased this year. Mister came up with the idea to use the corbels in the inset part. Perfect! He cut away some of the material so that the would set snuggly around the stepped in opening. They were glued and screwed in from the back side.

Step 7:
Sand, paint and install. There are a few ways you can install. We opted for a wall cleat.

My fireplace will "hang" on the wall with the aid of a wall cleat. For this we used a spare piece of 2x4 cut in 1/2 on the diagonal. One part was secured to the back of the fireplace surround and the other piece to the wall. We were able to determine where that should be when we dry-fitted the surround on the wall. We removed the baseboard for this. We will replace it on either side when installed.

Sorry in advance for this next picture. I painted the wall with chalkboard paint where the "fire box" will be. My fireplace will not have a back on it because I don't want to spend money on plywood. I always have chalkboard paint on hand! I saw this idea on a blog called Sophia's Decor.

While the chalkboard paint was drying the fireplace surround got a good sanding and 2 coats of paint to match the trim in my dining room.

When everything was dry we hung it on the wall and Mister replaced the baseboard.

Now it is ready for me to decorate for the Autumn season! I'm so excited and it is helping me to ease into the idea that Summer 2019 has come to a close.

So, what do you think? This project took an afternoon to build, another day to sand and paint the piece, the wall and fix the baseboard. (I could have been done in one day but we quit when we got the construction part done.)

The price for my new fireplace:$120

Somewhere to hang Christmas stockings: Priceless

Time to decorate!

Linking up to these parties!