My faux fireplace build

Submitted by dfroula on Thu, 12/12/2013 - 22:31

My daughter asked if we could build this together for her new apartment. We had fun putting it together over a month or so. I was easily able to duplicate the plans, even with my limited woodworking experience. I think it came out rather well. It was a lot of fun! We mounted it to the wall with a 1x4 board installed between the fireplace uprights and flush with the back edge of the mantle. I built a mounting bracket by overlapping two 1 inch thick, wide boards 50% and nailing them together. The width of the bracket boards were about 4 inches shorter than the mounting board on the fireplace to allow horizontal adjustment. I screwed the bracket to the wall. The bracket forms a pocket. The fireplace is lifted up and over the bracket so the fireplace mounting board slides into the pocket between the wall and the upper bracket board. I screwed the bracket a bit lower on the wall so the weight of the fireplace is supported by its legs. The bracket just keeps the fireplace snug against the wall. It worked great. Just be sure to screw the bracket into studs. I also removed the base board trim from the wall and cut it to fit around the fireplace. I also cleaned up an old fireplace log grate I had with a wire brush and flat black Rustoleum. I used a scrap piece of board painted flat black to put on the grate as a shelf for candles.

Estimated Cost
120.00
Estimated Time Investment
Week Long Project (20 Hours or More)
Finish Used
Two coats of latex primer, one light-colored latex base coat, blue-grey tinted glaze dry-brushed finish, two coats of satin polyurethane.
Recommended Skill Level
Starter Project