Decorative fireplace with your own hands: stepwise instruction

Plywood fireplace

This idea will come in handy if you need to hide some drawback in the room, for example, old heating radiator, whose replacement will not be expensive. False fireplace will come in handy.

First of all, you should install the frame right in place. You can make it out of the wooden beams.

Then sheathe the frame with plywood. Structure and appearance of the fireplace can be adjusted during the work. For example, you can add the podium to the portal. Heating battery is situated inside the construction. Therefore, it better to fasten the frame on the screws: in high temperature conditions, nails don’t guarantee tight fitting of veneer to the beams in future.

Using the beam, fix the furnace, which imitates the fireplace, to the back wall. All the surfaces, visible from the outside, should be pasted with a self-adhesive film.

Close the corners of the portal with a wooden layout (which you should paste with the film of the same color).

Such structure turns out easily removable (it is not attached to the wall at this stage), and you will easily get access to the heater. Furnace should be decorated. Therefore, you can put the metal mesh tray on the battery.

You can fill it with pebble, firewood or other decorative elements.

You can order the fender or make it with your own hands. For this, you will need a copper profile. If you don’t have one, you can use aluminum wire, inserted into the tube from vinyl chloride and painted gold. Fasten this lattice to the casing of the fireplace with a copper wire in 4 places.

You can close the pipes fitted to the battery with a continuation of podium.

To save the useful space, you can make a bar under the mantelpiece.

As a result, you will get such a fireplace, almost indistinguishable from the real one.

Fireplace from the old furniture

This is the most budget option. You probably have an old cabinet or cupboard. Don’t hurry to throw away this piece of furniture: on its basis, you’ll easily make a perfect imitation of the fireplace with lighting.

You will need:

• sheets of plywood;
• grinding machine;
• electric jigsaw;
• screwdriver;
• acrylic paint;
• putty;
• led strip;
• stucco, decorative elements, gypsum stone;
• surfaces.

Take off the doors of your old cupboard and remove the lower pedestal. Put the upper section on the side.

Screw two beams from the front.

Fasten two sheets of plywood on the beams above and below. In this way, you can give the required thickness to the fireplace.

Saw the hole for the “ash pit” in the door of the side locker (which is now located at the bottom). Here you can store the firewood, as in the real fireplace.

Our false fireplace will require plinth and mantelpiece. For that, you can take two back of an old bed. Don’t forget to unscrew the legs.

The structure is ready. Now you should proceed to the finishing works. Process the polished surfaces with grinding machine to make them rough. Prime the walls. Once they dry, you should putty and align the surface. Dry the putty and sand the roughness. Pain the casing with acrylic paint; finish the corners with brick or artificial stone. Paste the decorative elements and install the mantelpiece.

Decorate the furnace. Paste the LED strip along the perimeter. Choose red or yellow one, as it will perfectly imitate smolder. Pour the seashell pebble or sand on the bottom.

As a result, you will get such an excellent fireplace in a vintage style.

Corner fireplace from gypsum cardboard

At the first stage, we have to make a layout on the floor and the wall, based on the drawing or sketch of the fireplace, made in paper form. Take a marker to get a better view of the layout, and use ruler and level for accuracy. It is very important not to make serious mistakes in marking.

If you’re going to install an electrical appliance inside the corner portal of your false fireplace, you need to supply electricity in the corner. The easiest way is to make a socket behind the fireplace, where the electric fireplace or other built-in device will be connected.

Marking is ready. You should perform further works with your own hands. Take a metal profile and build the required structure. As a basis for fastening, you should use floor and walls. If you need to make the rounded elements, you should cut and bend the profile.

Having built the frame, you should start working with gypsum cardboard. We should cut the large sheet into small details (according to sizes on the drawing), and then fasten the pieces of drywall to the metal frame. As we said earlier, building the corner fireplace from gypsum cardboard with your own hands, you should carefully monitor the sizes not to waste the material. We should note that tapping screws must be twisted into the soft gypsum cardboard to hide their heads.

After fastening the gypsum cardboard, you need to take a putty and complete the image and shape of the fireplace. You should cover the grooves of tapping screws and make the smooth angles and joints. When the putty dries, you can make a surface more perfect with a knife and sandpaper. Finally, you should treat the gypsum cardboard and putty with primer to facilitate the fastening of finishing materials or paint the false fireplace.

Having built the basis of the structure, you can proceed directly to the exterior and interior finishes. It is better to start with furnace. If you’re going to build some device inside it, you should make a suitable finishing. For example, if you install the burner of the fireplace or real candles, you should strengthen the base by laying the tile to the bottom and finishing the inner part of furnace with heat-resistant material, asbestos or steel. If the furnace is empty, you can make the finishing from any materials.

After the furnace, you should proceed to the main (external) part. For finishing the corner fireplace, you can use ceramic tile, stone or its imitation, plastic panels, siding. There are many options. Decorative material is pasted to the frame with glue. Such glue usually dries for about a day.
You should install the countertop on the upper part of the frame (you can choose wooden or stone option depending on your preferences). In future, you can place decorative objects and souvenirs on this countertop.

We note that besides expensive finishing materials, there are quite budget options. For example, you can paint the fireplace in the corner (the simplest option is white). Gypsum cardboard (even primed) absorbs moisture well. Therefore, you’ll have to apply two layers of paint.

You can paste the frame of self-adhesive film with a suitable drawing or color. Film is not the most practical option; besides, we recommend you to choose German manufacturer, as the Chinese has big problems with quality (it always unsticks at the joints and in the corners).

To complete construction, you should install the furnace into the necessary device: bio fireplace or electric fireplace. Another interesting option is to place the photo frame with a picture of real fire inside the furnace.

Candles in the furnace are always appropriate. They can be either real or artificial (for example, in the form of garland, giving a nice flicker). Decorative wood fit perfectly into such concept. You can make it with your own hands or buy the ready-made options.

Hand-made corner false fireplace can be made not only of from gypsum cardboard, but also from the common cardboard boxes. Besides, the latter option is quite popular.

Styrofoam fireplace

Having built a styrofoam fireplace with your own hands, you will get the satisfaction of accomplished work and end result. It will definitely bring comfort, coziness and calmness to your home. The main thing is to choose the right style of the future product at the design stage.