A Fireplace Transformation for Under $200

So, I get on the phone with my 95-year-old grandfather. I try to explain to him what a blog is by comparing it to writing a column for a newspaper or magazine. Specifically, I'd be writing pieces about how I got into home remodeling, how I would tackle a project and what sort of projects I find interesting.

"Listen you have the knowledge, you have some time, and it doesn't cost you any money – so why not?"

Now read that again with a heavy European accent and now you have become my poppy!

And again, that dawned on me.

I'm always browsing through real estate sites and judging people on how they place their furniture or even what color they pick for their walls. I know, petty – but get over it!

These are things that totally change the perception of a property and even give a visitor a preconceived opinion on how the homeowner lives their life. So, let me give you a bit of a tutorial from my under $200 upgrade that completely changed the style of a fireplace – and ultimately, the perception of my home.

Like in many family rooms, the fireplace is the focal point. The place where everyone envisions reading a good book wrapped under a furry blanket with the smell of wood burning. For me, not so much. Scratch the book and put on some hockey. Still, this fireplace with the TV wires hanging all over the place, the weird sheen on the slate tiles and wood surround that matched the Amazon cardboard box colored walls did not pull you into the space.

So, let's dive into the steps of this transformation project.

Use that hammer to remove that outdated wood surround. Yes, like in most cases, a clean slate is the best place to start. In my case, the bones of the house had its potential. Luckily, I could keep the strangely polyurethane covered slate tile surround, but you could have easily removed that and found new tiles to replace them with. Of course, that adds some time and pesos to the project costs. Plus, you need to make sure you keep at least a 6" clearance around the fireplace opening to meet proper code. But if you can salvage what you have with some elbow grease (okay, lots of elbow grease in this case), save the cash for your next project.

Map out the plan. Let the Sharpie do the talking. While I wanted to bring the visual attention to the fireplace, I wanted to balance the wall and not leave your eyes at the lower half of the wall. So, for this case, I wanted a background to be consistent from floor to ceiling and ideally something that would cover all those annoying TV wires. I knew that shiplap was going to be an inexpensive way to achieve the visual goal.

But shiplap comes in many different types of wood, colors and sizes. Do you pick the dusty gray, the charred brown, or the prime white or the many other options? Do you go with MDF or pine? And what size shiplap should you work with? Many of these options were easily eliminated because of my measurements!

Because I was looking for the clean, white wall to contrast the black slate and reclaimed wood mantle ledge I would add, I went with a 5.25" nickel gap primed pine shiplap. The nickel gap literally means that a nickel could fit between the two boards when they stack. So that gap between the boards wouldn't be too noticeable.

Look to bury those annoying TV wires. If you can keep the sheetrock intact while doing your demo – Bravo! I used a level, marker and then a sheetrock knife to notch a GPS directed trench-line for my TWO wires. One to use today and one as an extra for the future. Never know if one is going to die. Future note: take a photo of where you place the wires with some measurements from visible guides. You don't want to puncture them in any of the next steps.

Measure, measure again and then cut your pieces out. That may sound redundant, but who likes spending extra time going back to a store for one item because you cut your pieces incorrectly.

Take your time placing the first plank. I tend to start in the middle because most homes have at least one wall that's not straight and this lined up perfectly with my slate tile edge. Place a bead of construction adhesive on the back of the plank and use the nail gun to place one tack in the middle.

And here is where I needed a shim – a sliver of wood that can be wedged to help in leveling. The slate tile didn't have a level edge. But a little finessing did the trick.

Continue away with working your way up or down the wall making sure the planks stay level. The planks fit together perfectly like a children's puzzle. If you find that your wall is not plum (vertically level), use that shim again!

Now that we've made it up and down the wall it's time to finish those edges. I found some simple outside edge molding that was the perfect depth of the shiplap. With another little bead of adhesive and a few tacks of the nail gun – boom, almost there. Now just fill in any holes that you have from the nail gun with some painter's chalk, let dry, sand and paint!

Add a mantle ledge. I ended up browsing my go-to favorite, Pottery Barn, and came across a reclaimed ledge that was exactly what I was planning on making. I could have purchased a 4"x4" or 4"x6", beaten it with an old chain, sanded it, stained it, and added some clean "L" brackets, but typing in my credit card information was way easier.

This is where that old photo of the trenched TV wires comes in handy. When hanging this ledge, I knew I needed to be at least 12" from the fireplace opening and that my TV would be hanging above. So, basically a delicate balance between the two would be best.

Hang the TV, plug everything in, add a bit of décor and I was done with this little project.

Maybe this was a small project to get everything started with. But the difference it made in the room was instantaneous for a little more than "it doesn't cost you any money" and some time. So now, it's time to light a fire, get buried under a comfy blanket and turn on some hockey – oh wait, the NHL season is suspended.

Until next time, keep swinging that hammer!