The New and Improved Fireplace

While I am normally the go getter, do it yourselfer, I can do anything (or most things) my husband can do- and he is pretty darn handy, I have been taking a hiatus from the DIY realm since the birth of baby number 4. It is very hard for me because I take pride in the fact that I can usually accomplish a lot in one day... not so lately. So this is my first big project after being on a pretty long break.

We moved into our new house in August. It is your standard California housing boom house. Those of you who live here know that it comes without real fireplaces (a restriction put on new builders). And while I am a native Californian my Midwest roots make me cringe at "fake" fireplaces. So here is my beginning attempt to warm it up.

See those super cute pillows... got that idea from Tatertots and Jello. They turned out great.

The naked fireplace. I was smart enough to remember to ask to add the light plug for Christmas lights, but not smart enough to specify where. A bit of an eye sore.

So what I wanted to do was create a bead board framed area that will be balanced out later on with a bigger mantle and some sort of rock on the bottom half.

I purchased one 4x8 piece of bead board, some MDF trim, and corner round. I am not usually a fan of corner round but I was trying to copy a fireplace I had seen in a PB magazine and this is what they used.

Using the chop saw I cut the pieces at a 45 angle and to the right length. And yes, I goofed up a couple times- mostly with the corner round.

Here are all my strips cut. Then I used the table saw to cut my bead board. That was really tricky and I was seriously hoping the neighbors would not see me. They all think I am crazy already for mowing the lawn while I was pregnant so I am sure if they saw me out there with this huge piece of wood and the wind blowing me everywhere they would have run out the door.. I digress. I cut that next. I had to use a narrow piece next to my 4 foot wide piece because my measurements were around 58 inches...

After I cut everything I started to hang the frame part. I used hubby's nail gun- which is really easy to use and makes you feel cool. Leveled it and what not. (And I forgot to put this picture in). I left about 1.5 inch space to allow for a larger mantle later on. I wanted it higher but then I had the issues of the outlet to deal with.

I put all the other pieces on next. Again you can see the space at the top. I had to calculate that measurement to allow for crown molding to be installed by hubby at a later date.

Next I added the bead board. I nailed it up the same way. I did have some help cutting out the spot for outlet.

I next nailed up the corner round next to the three inch frame and over the top of the bead board. You can see my seam on the right where my two piece of bead board meet up.

Then I puttied the heck out of everything. I have no fear of wood putty and use it quite liberally. But it requires a lot of sanding afterwards.

I used caulk to seal the outside edges-which gave the whole thing more strength, or so hubby said it would. I also had to pull the outlet out and mount it to the front of the bead board, which was not hard but hubby kept telling me that I might get electrocuted if certain pieces touched other pieces... the power was off, at the junction.

And here it is all painted and caulked and puttied. I did paint the space between the top of the frame and the ceiling until we get the crown in. It just seemed like what I should do.

This is the finished piece- at least for now. As I said it needs a new chunky mantle like Layla's atThe Lettered Cottage and then a rock surround. I am looking forward to balancing it out and bringing in the warm wood tones of the rest of the house.