Covering A Stone Fireplace With Wood

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Our DIY fireplace makeover is nearly complete, and it’s been one of the most involved home improvement projects we’ve taken on, second only to knocking down a few walls years ago during our first big remodel. We kept the original stone but added a custom wood surround to give it a more updated, built-in look.

There are still a few finishing touches left, like filling in the gaps between the stone and new surround with mortar and painting the brown fireplace insert.

I grabbed some high-heat black spray paint from Home Depot and plan to tackle that this weekend. Can’t wait to see how this fireplace update pulls the whole room together!.

This is where we left off last week, stage 2 – framing the vents .

Be sure to check out Stage 1 and Stage 2 of our DIY fireplace makeover to see how we built the initial frame. Once your frame is in place, the next step is to cover the fireplace surround with wood for a finished look.

We used a combination of plywood and 1×6 pine boards cut to size.

Start by measuring and cutting your materials. We covered the front-facing frame with plywood first, then layered the pine boards over it as the final visible surface.

This two-layer method wasn’t just for stability—it was also intentional for design.

By adding the extra layer of plywood, we gained about an inch of depth, which allowed us to create the visual effect of columns on either side of the fireplace insert.

While pre-made columns are available, they can be costly. Using plywood gave us the same look for a fraction of the cost—saving over $500 on this part of the fireplace remodel.

This is a portion of the frame from stage 2.

This is how the frame looks now with the plywood and pine covering the frame.

To finish covering our dated stone fireplace with wood, we used a combination of 1×6 pine boards and ¼” finished craft board from the trim section at Lowe’s.

These materials were perfect for completing the inside of the wood frame we built around the stone.

We ran into a small challenge when covering the area near the fireplace insert.

There was only about ¼” of clearance between the stone and the frame, so standard wood wasn’t an option. The ¼” craft board worked perfectly to fit behind the frame without creating a gap.

While it was a bit pricey per piece, we only needed a few, and Lowe’s had a great selection of thin wood paneling options to choose from.

This stone fireplace is currently non-functional, and we plan to install a pellet stove with a steel insert in the near future. Because we never intended to use it as a traditional wood-burning fireplace, we felt confident adding decorative wood trim over the stone surface for a more updated look.

If your fireplace is functional, be sure to check local fire codes before applying wood near or around the firebox.

Once we covered the front facing portion of the fireplace with plywood, this is how it looked.

We used 1″ trim molding pieces to fill in any gaps between the frame and the plywood.

Next we added the pine (1″ x 6 pieces cut to size) over the plywood.

Isn’t it amazing the difference wood can make?

 

My 7-year-old snapped the photo above and asked, “Mom, are you and Gramps making the fireplace pretty?” He knows me well!

Next week, I’ll be sharing how we built faux wood columns and our DIY mantel. The fireplace makeover is almost done—paint is finished, the room is updated, and the new couch arrives tomorrow. Now comes the fun part: decorating and sewing the curtains!

UPDATE: You can see the full fireplace reveal here.