Yay for fireplaces!!! This was seriously such a fun project no matter how much my husband says otherwise haha. Usually in my blog posts I put in a bit of humor and fun bits of life advice buuuuuuut for this one we are all just here for the fireplace right? So let’s just get right down to it. This won’t be perfect instructions but I will try my absolute darndest.
Before we really get into this I want to say what inspired me in the first place. We just barely moved into a house that had a wall that was BEGGING to become a fireplace. I mean pleeeading. Only I didn’t even realize it until a friend posted a picture on Facebook. It was a magnificent Christmas fireplace with a mantle and decorations that had me melting. Immediately I knew I had to have a fireplace and heard the calls of the magestic beast chanting loudly. I got to work looking up tutorials and other blogs that could tell me exactly how to do it! I found this blog post : https://pin.it/3fRBlaQ that gave me JUST what I needed!!! You could very well go look at that one to help you with more inspo! BUT I figured I would make a post about my process because my fireplace is a bit wider and the top isn’t a box, it just sits against the wall instead. NOW we can get to work.
Here is my beauty and I am SO proud I could scream.
The absolute very first step is deciding what you want and figuring out the measurements for that. I decided to make mine pretty dang wide so if you want it smaller you’ll just have to adjust the measurements accordingly. OR to make things easier on yourself, you can just use my exact measurements and call it good 😂
To be honest I’m not exactly sure how many 2×4’s we bought. . . . But it was a ton lolol. I’ll just say around 20 and you’ll be safe (don’t worry I just went and counted) if you end up with extra then you can take them back! You can either have lowes or Home Depot cut them to the sizes you need or you can do it at home if you have the tools. We only have a small crossover suv so I had them cut them down a little so they would fit in our car 😂 The rest we did ourselves.
We started with the base pictured below. You can see the measurements of each board written on them down below.
For the step (base) you will need:
4- 2×4’s cut to 63”
8- 2×4’s cut to 21”
8- 2×4’s cut to 12”
We used wood glue and an impact drill for these. Assemble as pictured (but maybe a little more even?) 😂💁♀️ Try to keep it as square as possible. We bought an easy square device but we suck and got lazy and didn’t do it and it caused problems later on haha.
Now on to the top part, the part that will actually hold the fireplace. The two beams on the each side of the fireplace are going to be different depending on which fireplace you get. We cut ours to 17.3 inches. When we bought our fireplace the instructions on Amazon told us the suggested length the hole should be for the fireplace. It gave us a range and I just picked within that range. Unless you buy my exact fireplace, you will need to measure the two beams on each side of the fireplace yourself. Here is the link to our exact electric fireplace. . . .
http://www.amazon.com/shop/mikaylaiverson
It’s super cool because it changes colors and can be on with no heat or with heat and it’s just like a space heater so the glass doesn’t ever get hot.
In this picture you will see the correct measurements and assembly for the top part of the fireplace. This does not include the mantle. If you want a higher mantle, all you have to do is make the four vertical beams longer than what I have listed here. If you want it exactly the same, just follow my exact guide. You will need:
7- 2×4’s cut to 60”
4-2×4’s cut to 14”
2- 2×4’s cut to 17.3”
4- 2×4’s cut to 32”
As pictured below, you need to change the orientation of the board in the back to laying flat on the ground. Otherwise you won’t be able to screw it to the wall. We learned the hard way and had to add one later. That’s why you see in the other pictures below, that there are two back there. If you fix the orientation in the first place you won’t need to add another one haha. Just trust me. We used wood glue once again and screws. I don’t know the exact length of screws but you need a lot of them and they need to be long ones haha.
After you make the top part you are ready to install it into your wall! I would make sure you have the rest of the stuff ready before you do this though because otherwise you’re gonna have fireplace bones for awhile 😂 This is what it should look like before and after you install it! The board on the step is just set there. You won’t put that on till even after the shiplap.
We used oriented strand board to cover the fireplace so that you can apply shiplap over the top. We had to run the cord for the fireplace to the outlet through the side before we did this step because there isn’t an outlet behind there. So make sure to keep that in mind if you don’t have an outlet there either. I would give the exact measurements on this part but in all honesty I just measured as I cut. The reason I did this is you need this to be exact to YOUR measurements. If I told you a list of measurements I would be wrong because your fireplace is going to measure slightly differently than mine and it needs to be pretty close to exact. Just measure the parts that need to be covered and cut the wood down to that size so the whole thing is covered, like this. I didn’t do the step with this board or the top because the wood we bought for the actual step cover will cover that anyway and the top will have the mantle when you are done! Here it is! Almost done! We used a nail gun for this part. Sooooo much easier haha. We also used wood glue.
Next up:
Making your mantle! We bought a pretty wide board for our mantle as you can see, but you can have any width you want! I just went in and bought whatever wood board I thought looked nicest from Lowe’s. I’m not exactly sure which kind of wood it is but if you show the people at Lowe’s what wood I used they could take you right to it. I had them cut the front and the sides to these measurements:
Then you will also need a top and bottom sheet of wood. This has to be wide and long so if you don’t have something that can rip wood length wise, I would have them cut it at Lowe’s. Here are the measurements for those pieces:
1- 69” board (whatever thickness you want! Ours is a 1×7 and 1/8 board
2- 17” board (this is the same as the other board
2- 67.5”x 17” (thickness doesn’t matter)
Once you do that all you have to do is staple them together! We did the two side pieces to the front pieces first and then went in with the top and bottom. We also used wood glue here too.
This finishes the actual shelf part BUT to keep it strong and sturdy we made a cleat to actually drill into the wall. You can see it pictured here and see how it needs to be put together with wood glue and screws.
We found the two edges to be easiest to start with on both pieces. For the clear you will need:
1- 2×4 cut at 66”
5- 2×4’s cut at 14”
Now all you gotta do is sand and stain! For that bottom step part you just need to decide what board you want and the thickness/ width. You will need:
1- 65” board (ours was 2” thick)
We wanted a little bit of overhang in the front and on the sides so I had it cut a little longer than the actual fireplace itself. Once you sand the step and the mantle you are ready for stain! The stain we got was aged barrel at Lowe’s. We are planning on putting hinges on the bottom so the step can open up and be used for storage! It will open forward though. If you don’t want it to open you can just screw it down into the boards below and fill the holes with putty, then stain. We did 2 coats on everything! If you want the colors to match exactly, you need to make sure to get the same type of wood for the mantle and the step. Different woods take stains differently. The actual shelf just slides right into the cleat!
And walla! You have a fireplace! For the shiplap we actually had someone come finish it out for us because we were exhausted haha. But it really wouldn’t be hard to do on your own, just takes more time. We got our shiplap boards from Lowe’s. Really you just need to measure them and slap them on with a nail gun. Make sure to do this step before you put the mantle and step in because it will make a difference for measurements. ALSO make sure you paint the fireplace, the boards usually don’t come painted, just primed – so that is something else to think about. Feel free to comment and message me if you have any questions!
Much wood (hehe), love, and food to you!
-Mikayla Iverson
The Little Gingers That Could 