Alright, so this fireplace is good enough, but I just feel it's really lackluster.
I think, like this molding up here, I don't know, it's just missing some beef or something.
Plus the guys that painted it, or did the molding, they like left the saw lines on the
end here.
Anyway, it's kind of funny.
And then, last Christmas, my little sticky hooks pulled the paint off, so I was like,
okay, now I'm gonna get it done.
I wanna put our TV above the fireplace, just to get it out of the way, and so I'll be taking
out this little cove, because that's itty bitty.
I lucked out with this marble ledger and didn't have hardly any waste, so I actually had quite
a bit of extra left over.
So, I think I have just enough to do above the TV.
I used an oscillating tool and a laser line to mark where I needed to remove the sheet
rock.
I thought it would be a good idea to remove the sheet rock before I put the cement board
for the tile.
Little did I know, it did not want to peel off the OSB.
So it was piece by piece, it took a few hours to get all that off.
But eventually I got it all.
I reinforced the little cove area with scrap 2x6s.
I wanted to make sure that it was nice and strong because the TV would be mounted to
these 2x6s.
I spaced the 2x6s at the required distance for the TV mount.
On the left side of the fireplace, I have a wall that juts back to the main wall, and
I wanna create a more balanced look on the front of the fireplace, and then I also want
a place to keep all our media, DVD players, gaming systems, etc.
So I'm building an 18 inch by 18 inch by 10 foot tall media cabinet, and this will help
with storage issues and then it will also create a faux wall look to give a balanced
look to the front of the fireplace.
The job foreman was nice enough to come give it a look and make sure everything was glued
up nice and square.
To give the plywood a finished look, I used some iron-on edge banding that glues right
onto the edge of the plywood and gives it a nice look.
So the 8 foot cabinet fits right to the left of the fireplace, and then I have an additional
2 foot cabinet to go right up to the ceiling.
I extended the hearth out a little to give it a balanced look.
For the hearth of the fireplace, I wanted the look of a thick stone, but one day I was
shopping at Home Depot and ran across marble tile on clearance for a dollar each.
I decided to take a risk and try a mitered edge to make it look like a thick stone.
I just couldn't pass up the bargain of a dollar a tile, even though I have never done a mitered
edge.
I made a little ledge with my upper MDF piece so the vertical portion of the mitered edge
tile will have something to sit on and will be supported.
I prepped the hearth for tile using mortar and hardy backer cement board.
Then the cement board is secured in place with rock-on screws.
I find that an impact wrench is a lot easier to drive the rock-on screws into the cement
board than a drill.
To make the mitered edge on the tile, I built this quick 45 jig.
The upper ledge lets me hold the tile against it while I slide it so I can get a nice straight
45 on the end.
It worked out pretty good.
I did get a few chips, but not bad.
Normally with laying a light tile or a stone, I would use the white thinset, but I had a
partial bag of gray left and so I just didn't want to waste it and buy a whole new bag just
for this project.
I set the hearth tiles so the 45 would end right at the end of the hearth.
I used 16th inch spacers just to minimize the amount of grout.
Now that the hearth tile is drying, it's time to get going on the fun part, building up
the new fireplace mantel.
I built a simple frame out of 2x4s that will allow me to secure the mantel to the wall
and give the mantel some depth that I can build off of.
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I have some free plans for this fireplace mantel that you can download off my website.
I'll link it up in the corner and then it's in the description below.
I temporarily secured 2 support blocks to the wall and placed the frame over the fireplace,
making sure that it is centered with the fireplace.
I secured the frame to the studs in the wall.
Then making sure that the legs were plumb, I secured the legs to the studs with 3 inch
wood screws.
I want the mantel top to look really chunky.
I laminated together 3 pieces of MDF, making sure to glue it really really well.
The risk with this method is that the front face will be a cut edge of MDF, which can
look bad when painted, but with extra care in the prep work, it should look really great.
On all of the cut edges of the MDF, I put a thin coat of spackle or smoothing cream
and let that dry and then I sanded that smooth.
That will help smooth those areas out before painting.
If you're going to tackle a fireplace surround, you'll first want to check out the requirements
for your fireplace setup.
Check your user manual or Google your fireplace make and model to find out your requirements
for the distance from the fireplace to combustible materials.
Generally, you'll want to keep combustible materials at least 6 inches away from the
fireplace.
You may also have a mantel height versus depth clearance as well.
First step is to cover the face of the 2x4 frame with MDF.
Step 2, wrap all of the frame sides in MDF.
Step 3, add the MDF trim to give it a craftsman look.
At this point, I added my marble tile fireplace surround.
Step 4, I added decorative trim at the top of the legs and support blocks for the crown
molding.
This beast was heavy.
To secure the mantel top, I drilled countersink holes and secured the top with screws into
the 2x4 frame.
And finally, I added the crown molding.
I sanded all of the new mantel smooth and filled in all of the nail holes.
Then I caulked around all of the edges including all of the little craftsman details and all
of the trim around all of the tile and everything.
I mounted a plywood piece that will be used for the TV mounting hardware.
I also added a 2 inch PVC pass through tube for the cables and so I can easily take all
of the cables that go to the TV and pass them through into the media cabinet and have
a wireless setup.
I covered all of the OSB on the wall with cement board and secured them with the rock
on screws.
I used pre-mixed tile adhesive to attach the marble ledger to the wall.
And just a note here, if I would have gone left to right, I could have set the tile on
top of each other instead of tucking the next tile underneath the other one.
But the wall edge on the right side was a little easier for me to follow so I went right
to left instead of left to right.
And luckily I had just enough marble ledger to finish the job.
I finished off the hearth with the front edge of the mitered tile.
My faux thick stone or mitered tile edge looked pretty good.
It certainly isn't perfect but it does look pretty nice, especially for a dollar tile.
I made some simple X doors for my media cabinet.
I like to attach cabinet doors with the European hinges.
They're really nice because there's a lot of adjustability with them.
I also made some really simple drawers for the DVDs and the games.
We were a little bit concerned about how high the TV would be mounted on the wall and if
it would be comfortable for viewing.
And so I found this really cool TV mount called a mantel mount and it drops down below the
mantel to bring the TV down to a comfortable height.
It's pretty cool.
Overall I'm loving the new look of the fireplace.
I like that it's more substantial.
I'm loving how the TV is up and out of the way and I'm especially loving having all that
media cabinet to the side so you can't see any of it when you walk into the front room.
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