A Fireplace Tutorial

When Jason and I were in the market to buy our first home in our city, like many other first time home buyers, we had our list of things we hoped our new home would have.  We wanted to find a nice little Cape Cod home with built ins, namely corner cabinets in the dining room, a fireplace, and lots of character.  Unfortunately, we bought our first home when the market was pretty crummy.  House prices and interest rates were high and that left us with only a few options in good neighborhoods and in our price range.  We did find our Cape Cod with lots of character and some built ins, but sadly, there were no corner cabinets or fireplaces.

However, we didn't let the lack of corner cabinets or a fireplace stop us from buying this house.  The decision came down to a stone and brick Cape Cod, a ranch with an above ground pool that was home to a family of ducks, or another ranch with a large turtle habitat in the basement.  We're talking more than one turtle pond and too many tanks filled with turtles to count.  We settled in and slowly worked on fixing up our home.  We found ourselves some corner cabinets on Craigslist and fixed them up.  You can read more about that project here.  However, there was still one thing missing:  our fireplace.  After creating a family room in our basement, Jason was inspired to build a fireplace down there.  Ideally, we would have loved to put one in our living room, but the square footage and window placement would not allow it.

He began the process by framing out an area between two bookshelves we already had placed along a space in our basement where we wanted a wall to be located.  This wall would section off part of our family room from other areas of the basement.  He made sure to leave a large enough space between the middle studs to accommodate an electric fireplace insert.  He was not concerned about stud spacing because this is essentially a faux wall.  Prior to the wall being built, we had an old curtain hiding the furnace and workshop behind it, so this step in the process was a welcome improvement.  He then added horizontal furring strips and bead board to the framing to complete the wall.

We used painters tape to figure out how big we wanted the fireplace to be on the wall. This proved to be extremely helpful as we found ourselves moving the tape multiple times before we finally decided on a size.

It was at this time that Jason cut out a 22 1/2'' wide by 19 1/2'' high portion of the beadboard so that we could insert the electric fireplace.  The bottom of this cut started about 2 1/4'' off of the floor to allow the hearth to slip underneath.  We bought the fireplace insert at Menards when it was on sale.  The brand is Chimney Free.

To make the hearth, Jason bought a piece of 3/4'' stock pine which he cut to 60'' long by 12'' deep. He used a round over bit to route the edge of the top on three sides. This softened the edge and gave it a more finished look.

To elevate it off of the ground, he used 3/4'' thick stock that was 1 1/2'' wide. He braced it all along the inside with scrap pieces to make it nice and sturdy.  The total length of the wood underneath is 59'' long and 11 1/2'' deep and is mitered at the corners. These pieces are smaller than the actual dimensions of the hearth top so they could be set back from the edge by 1/2'' creating a shadow line. Again, he glued and pocket screwed these pieces to the hearth top.

Jason filled nail holes, sanded, and cleaned up the hearth.  He made sure it was free of scratches and knicks because our desire was to stain it a dark color.  We used Minwax Stainable Wood Filler to fill in any holes. 

We used Jacobean stain and a wipe-on Poly, both by Minwax.  He only stained the top and would later paint the sides of the hearth white.

To make the legs of the fireplace, Jason glued and pocket screwed three pieces of 3/4'' stock pine boards together.  The dimensions of the front board are 46 1/2'' by 5 1/2'' and the dimensions of the two side boards are 46 1/2'' by 3 1/2''.

For the horizontal rectangular piece between the two legs, he used both pine and Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF).  We chose to use MDF for this larger section because it is stable and has a nice smooth surface that easily accepts paint. He cut the piece of MDF to 37'' by 15''. He then attached four pine boards to the back of the MDF to give the middle section the same depth as the two legs. He used 3/4'' stock that was 3 1/2'' wide. He cut two pieces to 37'' and two pieces to 13 1/2''. This is the top portion of the surround, and goes between the legs. Part of this section will later be hidden with moulding.

This section was glued and pocket screwed together as well.

He then attached the middle section of the surround to both legs by screwing them together using 1 1/4'' construction screws. The work pieces were held together evenly using clamps while fastening them together.

This is what the horizontal piece looks like when connected to the legs. In the photo there is a scrap piece of wood on the top.

The next phase was to complete the mantel and moulding at the top. To complete the mantel top, Jason routed the edge of a piece of 3/4'' pine that was 59'' long by 10 1/4'' deep.  He routed three sides of this piece and placed the routed edge down leaving the top completely flat.  He left a bead detail while routing to give the top more interest.  He then secured the top to the legs and the horizontal piece of the surround using 1 1/4'' construction screws.  

He then wrapped the top of the surround with a piece of inverted base molding and a piece of crown moulding.  We chose to use the inverted base molding to make the crown look more substantial.  The base molding was purchased at Menards and the crown moulding, which was 5 1/4'' wide was purchased at The Home Depot. After being properly placed, it was nailed to the surround.

He left the top mantel and moulding 1/4'' long on the back side to accommodate a 1/4'' piece of MDF that we used for the entire back.  This covered the beadboard and gave the area right around the firebox a nice clean look.  You can see this piece on the pictures below.

He also wrapped the bottom of the legs with left over pieces of base moulding.  Again, he left only the outside pieces 1/4'' longer to accommodate the back piece of MDF.

We then added some moulding to the front horizontal piece to add some detail to the front of the surround.

In the picture below, you can see the piece of MDF that covers the entire back of the surround and goes directly around the firebox.  It looks loose in the picture because it is not yet secured to the legs.  Eventually it would be secured using 1 1/4'' construction screws.  The dimensions of the entire back are 48'' wide by 46 1/2'' tall. Like the beadboard, it too had to be cut to make way for the fireplace insert.  There is a 22 1/2'' wide by 19 1/2'' tall rectangle cut out of the bottom to facilitate this.   

Below is the entire piece before we painted it.  To prepare the entire piece for painting, Jason filled in all nail holes with Minwax Stainable Wood Filler and the joints where all the components of the fireplace came together with DAP Dynaflex 230 Premium Indoor/Outdoor Sealant.  He also sanded and made sure that the piece was clean and free of debris that could make painting difficult.

Here are the dimensions for the entire fireplace.

Jason painted the entire fireplace white using Olympic semi-gloss.  He also painted the front and sides of the hearth that we did not stain.

Here is the final product.  Don't mind the wonky pictures.  Apparently it is difficult for me to photograph a dark basement.

We are pretty thankful to finally have a fireplace in our home!  It not only adds character but some extra heat in our chilly basement family room.

If you'd like, you can check back tomorrow.  I'll be posting about my first fall mantel decorating experience ever!  I'm just a little bit excited...

I'm linking up to some of my most favorite blogs:

Home Stories A to Z

Miss Mustard Seed

Serenity Now

Tatertots and Jello

Our Wine Cellar: The Beginning

My husband and I enjoy wine, though we do not claim to be wine experts.  We do not spend a lot of money on a bottle of wine and probably never will.  However, we wanted a nice place to store our wine and make selecting and drinking it more of an experience.  I like cooking with wine.  Drinking a glass with a delicious meal is something Jason and I can enjoy at home together without spending a great deal of money.  We wanted to create a space that was functional as well as beautiful, and perhaps one that might be of interest to a future buyer of our home should we ever decide to sell and move.  So we made a wine cellar and storage area that we happen to really love and didn't cost a lot of money.  There was, however, a great deal of time and energy spent in creating this room and building the shelves to hold the wine, mostly on the part of my husband, Jason.  We are excited to share our process with you!  This is what our room looked like before.

Our next door neighbor has lived in our neighborhood for many years and knew the previous owners of our home.  He told us the first owners of our home were an Italian family who had grape vines, fruit trees, vegetables, and herbs growing in the backyard.  We think that they used this area to help preserve what they grew in the yard. The room was all sealed and there were hooks in the ceiling for drying herbs.

Needless to say, this room was not one that I enjoyed going into.  Everything felt and looked dirty and old.

For us, this room is used primarily as a storage area.  We store many of our kitchen items that we don't use on a daily basis down here because of the lack of storage space in our kitchen.  As you can see, it was not a very nice place to keep much of anything!

We knew that to really fix this room up, we would have to do a little demolition.  Jason began the demolition by ripping out some of the shelves.  Our plan was to reuse some of them and paint them to freshen them up a little.  We ripped mostly everything out, including this bench.



Jason also removed the wood and aluminum foil ceiling to reveal the floor joists that had been covered.

He painted the ceiling a nice, bright white.  It is amazing how the white paint makes the ceiling seem a little bit taller!  You can also see in this picture how he painted the shelves a dark gray color.

The walls also got some white paint.  We used Zinsser Watertite Mold and Mildew-Proof Waterproofing Paint on the cinder block and on the wood walls we used a basic semi-gloss.

Here are the shelves before they were painted.

Here they are after being painted.  Paint does wonders, doesn't it?

We have never had a problem with water in our basement, but we knew that we wanted to install some type of flooring in the room.  We didn't want to take any chances for moisture to leak from the walls or through the floors.  After painting the walls with the waterproofing paint, Jason caulked along the joint between the wall and the floor.  He used Zinsser Watertite Polyurethane Sealant.

After the caulk dried (which took forever), he painted it with the waterproofing paint.

Framing the unit was done by using 2x4s.  Getting the plans to work around the pipes running along the back wall was a little tricky!  The wine shelves would have three separate sections.  The three sections would hold white wines, red wines, and sparkling/special wines.  The middle section would also have a display area to hold books, decorations, and provide an area to open and pour wine.  The bottom section below the shelves would be turned into cabinets to hold extra wine glasses and provide extra storage for things we didn't want visible in the room.

To make the shelves that hold the wine, Jason used 1x2s and nailed them into place with a nail gun.

The little pieces that hold the wine on the shelves are 1/2''x3/4''.  Jason nailed them into place as well.  It was important to get equal spacing between each block of wood that supports the necks of the bottles.  In order to do this, he cut a piece of wood the correct size to use as a spacer and simply moved it down the shelf after nailing each piece.  This eliminated the need to measure each time before nailing and kept things square.  The distance between the two small blocks is 1 1/4''.

We were pretty excited to put the wine on the shelves even though the whole unit was not done yet.  You can see in this picture the defined sections of the unit as well as the display area in the middle.  To give you an idea of how big the wine shelves are, the left and right sections are 16'' wide.  The middle section is 21'' wide.  The distance between the two boards the bottles rest on from the back edge to the front edge is 10 1/4''.  The vertical distance between each shelf is 5 1/4''.   The shelves the bottles rest on are the same height.  The shape of the bottle allows the neck to rest at a natural angle because the neck is smaller than the bottom of the bottle.  This allows the wine to remain in constant contact with the cork keeping it moist.  

This picture shows the area below the shelves that will become cabinet space.

To make the display area, Jason lined it with 1/4'' birch plywood.  The base of the cube is 1/2'' plywood.

 

To give the display area some visual interest and some light, Jason installed under cabinet puck lights, which are plugged in and strung together.  He installed one more over each end section as well.

In order to make the display area look finished, Jason used pieces of 1/4'' quarter round to cover the seams where the sides and top meet the base of the box.

 Jason didn't want to paint the whole floor before working in the room in case it somehow got damaged, so he just painted underneath the wine shelving.  Before building and installing the cabinet doors, Jason painted the remainder of the floor with the waterproofing paint.

To cover the bottom storage area, Jason needed to build four doors.  He made them out of 1/2'' plywood.

Jason dressed up the plywood by making a frame around the front of each piece.  The wood that makes the frame around the front of the plywood is a 1/4'' thick by 1 3/4'' wide.  To cover up the edge of the plywood, Jason used a rounded piece of moulding that measures 3/4'' wide and covers the seam between the framed piece and the plywood.  The two outer doors measure 17''.  The two middle doors measure 10 3/4''.

We fixed up the window in here with some frosted glass spray paint for privacy and gave it a couple of coats of paint.

Since you have been overloaded with "before" pictures and information on how we refinished this room and built a wine cellar, I'll end this post now and give you the "afters" later on this week.  I can't wait to share it with you!  Please stayed tuned and have a fabulous week!