Our fireplace makeover stage 3 {covering the stone with wood}

Our fireplace makeover is almost finished! Yay! This has been a DIY project for the record books. It’s probably the biggest DIY project we have tackled in our home other then ripping down walls but that doesn’t count. ha. These pictures don’t show the completed painted fireplace but you will see it take transformation. I still need to mix mortar and fill in the gaps between the existing stone and new wood surround we added as well as paint the chocolate brown fireplace insert. I purchased high heat black paint from Home Depot and plan on painting the insert this weekend.

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

Be sure to check out stage 1 and stage 2 to see how we constructed our frame. Once your frame is completed, the next phase is to cover the fireplace with wood. We used a combination of plywood and pine ( 1 x 6 pieces cut to size) . Start by measuring and cutting your wood to size. We covered our frame (the front facing portion) with plywood first. Then we added the finished pine (the wood you paint and see) last. The reason why we added plywood in addition to the pine (created an extra layer) was because I wanted to create columns on either side of the fireplace insert. In order to do this, we need to give the appearance that the sides were larger. The plywood added an extra inch of depth. I suppose I could have just purchased pre-made columns but they are extremely expensive and the plywood essentially created the visual appearance that I was looking for. I saved about $500 by using the plywood and creating our own columns.

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.

We used the pine and 1/4″ craft board (that I purchased at Lowes in the trim section) to cover the inside of the frame. We had a small problem covering the stone near the fireplace insert. In order to prevent a gap, I wanted the wood to fit behind the frame. We only had a 1/4″ to work with so I went to Lowes and found craft board (in the trim section) that was perfect. It wasn’t cheap but thankfully I only needed a few pieces. Lowes has a great selection of finished wood that comes in a variety of thickness sizes. We do not use this fireplace and plan on installing a pellet stove which will provide a steel insert. Be sure to check your local fire code prior to working on a stove and adding wood as a surround. We added these decorative elements because we do not use the stove. The pellet stove will essentially cover these decorative pieces once installed.

My gramps supervising. He does this well! He has had a few nose bleeds so he isn’t allowed to help at the moment. He is completely annoyed with aging. He thinks he is 30 years old but his old body is catching up with him.

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?

The picture above from instagram was snapped by my 7 year old son with my phone. He kept saying, “mom, what are you and gramps doing to the fireplace…..are you making it pretty?” haha. He has learned quickly that I like “pretty.” haha. Next week I will show you how to create faux columns with wood as well as how we created our mantel. Our fireplace makeover is almost finished and I cannot tell you how happy that makes me. It’s been a lot of work updating the fireplace but well worth it. I have since painted the fireplace and the room and the new couch is being delivered tomorrow. Now for the fun part, decorating and making the curtains :).

UPDATE: You can see the full fireplace reveal here.