DIY Faux Fireplace Updated

Consider this the alternate ending to our DIY Faux Fireplace. Because those are always the best anyway, right?

(I’m still holding my breath for Jon Snow’s alternate ending on Game of Thrones.)

So here’s where we left off in season two of the Bless’er House Can’t-Leave-Well-Enough-Alone Chronicles.

Up until last week, our ginormous 60″ TV was still hanging out above our mantel, and as much as I really despised it, that dang TV was the one thing Robert really wanted.

But then one night mid-Netflixathon, Robert had the idea to move the big black box to our stairway wall. Because it really was a pain in the neck (literally) to look up at that big screen sometimes. Once our DIY antique printers cabinet media console entered the room, it gave us free reign for our fireplace!

And that meant the log end door we had made to hide all of the cords feeding down to the outlet behind the fireplace could go buh-bye. Yay!

It was a big job though, so of course we had to hire an extra pair of hands. Even if they were a lot smaller than the typical handyman’s. 😉

Her Princess Anna costume is her work uniform, apparently.

After we removed the firebox door, we were back to this setup.

Robert and Olivia removed the TV mount while they were at it too. (And yes, I had a mini heart attack right here.)

You can see the full list of supplies and instructions to build our faux fireplace in this previous post.

For the firebox, here are the supplies we used:  (Affiliate links are provided below. For more information, see my full disclosure here.)

• 1 panel of brick hardboard
• Circular saw (We have this one and it does a great job.)
• Jigsaw
• Tape measure
• 1.5″ finishing nails
• Hammer or pneumatic nail gun
• Latex caulk (and caulk tool if you’re a messy caulker like me and need some help)
• Paint brush (I always use this one.)
• Flat black paint (I just used some leftover chalkboard paint I had.)

We nailed down a couple of 2×4 pieces at the bottom of our firebox first to make it completely level and stable for the brick panel since it would eventually hold heavy logs.

Then we measured the width and depth we needed to cut our first piece of the brick paneling for the bottom and anchored it with finishing nails.

We measured and cut the paneling again for the sides, and we secured it with more nails.

Since we had two outlets to work around (for whatever reason we may need access to one day), we used a jigsaw to cut out those spots in the paneling. Then nailed it up and caulked all of the seams.

After two coats of the flat black paint, the outlets pretty much disappeared. We could have gotten black outlet covers, but I wanted them to be matte and blend in and outlet covers have a shine to them and would have been more noticeable.

I found this fireplace grate at the thrift store for a few bucks the other day and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

Lucky for us, it was the perfect fit. I filled it with some birch logs just for decor purposes.

We obviously won’t be burning a fire in this firebox as this is purely for looks. But considering we got an entire inch of snow this whole winter here in Charlotte, I think we’ll still survive without the working one.

I seriously debated getting an electrical fireplace insert but for the size we needed, it was going to be close to $500. Eh…I’m cool with this firebox that cost us about $35 instead.

So now, I have so much decorating space on our newly cleared mantel! Thank goodness that TV is gone!

I’ll be sharing more about the new TV spot later. So now that I’m left with this blank canvas, what are your favorite ways to decorate a mantel? I’m already trying to think of how I’m going to fancy it up for summer.

I have another place in our house that I’m hoping to use this brick paneling, and if it turns out the way I have it planned in my head, it’s going to be awesomesauce!

Is it semi-convincing? There are so many DIY possibilities with this stuff.

On a side note, our coffee table got a new stain job on the top since it had really gotten a workout lately with the kiddo climbing all over it all the time. It’s still a work in progress.

So now it’s up to the critics. Are you a fan of this alternate ending? Or was the original log front door more your scene?

By the way, if you’re curious about any of the items in our living room (like that fan and those curtains that some of you guys have asked about), you can see all of our sources over at the Shop the House page.

If you ever get the hankering to build your own ginormous faux fireplace, you can pin this post for later too: