Remodelando la Casa: Adding Visual Interest and Height to your Fireplace

I wanted the fireplace to be the focal point in the family room. I was also going to have a big t.v. in this room, but I didn’t want the t.v. to take center stage. My main goal was to give the fireplace visual interest and height and, to create a sense of balance to the whole space (kitchen and family room); on one side of this big room is the range hood and, on the other side the fireplace.

This are the parts of a fireplace

This is how it looked before:

Nothing up there, I just had that ugly picture!

The following pictures show an easy way to create the overmantel:

-The whole structure was built with ½”MDF. A big piece of MDF was attached to the wall (nailed to the studs). The dimensions for this piece are taken on what you have. The width should be the same as in the lower portion of the fireplace and the height would be the distance from the top of the mantel shelf all the way to the ceiling.

-Right on top of this piece I attached another one like this:

-Two more pieces were attached at each side; the width of these pieces should be the same as the legs of the fireplace.

-One more at the button:

-The crown molding was put in place (definitely, practice makes perfect! This time, my third time dealing with this molding, it was a cinch!).

-A narrow strip of molding (base cap) was attached below the crown.

This base cap molding was installed all around the room. The piece of wall in between this molding and the crown molding is painted the same color to give the illusion of a built up or upgraded crown.

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-Finally, a much smaller piece of molding ½” was attached to cover the rough edges of the MDF, as shown:

To finish it up, all the gaps and holes were filled with caulking, then sanded and painted, following the step taken for painting the kitchen cabinets.

Hubby show up at the end just to take pics!

I cleaned the firebox, scraping the inside walls to get rid of rust. Two coats of spray paint Rust-Oleum High Heat were applied to the inside as well as the outside of this firebox (I was happy to cover that brass color on the button panel). Protect or cover all the other contiguous areas from getting this black paint!

This is how it looks with the overmantel:

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I just installed crown molding at the top of the overmantel. I didn’t istalled it around the room because of my budget . That’s something I have to do later on.

For now that’s it,

Thanks,

Linked party at:
www.atthepicketfence.com/
commonground-debrasvintagedesigns.blogspot.com/
www.findingfabulousblog.com/2012/01/frugalicious-friday.html

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Adding Visual Interest and Height to your Fireplace

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