Homespun Happenings

I am so excited to share this with you.

We moved here 2 years ago this past July. From the first moment I walked into this Colonial Revival home, I have wanted to make a surround for this fireplace. It just looked incomplete to me....sooo much brick.

I have been searching Pinterest for ideas since day 1. I am glad we waited 2 years, you wouldn't believe the design ideas I have gone through and changed over and over in my head....Panels or no panels? In the end we, hubby and I and our "Architect Son", agreed on a very basic shaker style surround. This house is very basic in its woodwork and baseboards too.

I am going to share with you our journey of building the surround.

We are by no means professionals.

So please forgive us if we didn't do something just right.

First we did research on Code for leaving so many inches of brick and not protruding out so many inches and measured accordingly.

With 1x2" boards for our 'Skeleton',

we used screws and liquid nails to attach the wood to the brick.

Next we used a 3/8" sheet of plywood for the "skin" to cover all that brick.

Tacking it in with brads.

Now for the fun part!

Using a nail gun, we attached a solid piece of 1x12" cut down to 1x10" board for the top part. For the 'legs' we used a 1x8" board cut to length. We turned the 1x8" on its side to mock up the baseboard at the bottom of each 'leg'.

The previous owner had leftover trim for the baseboard which made it super easy to figure out. This made it match up with our current baseboard. With it being a corner fireplace, we had to cope two of the angles on the quarter round at the very bottom of the baseboard. Our oldest son and Architect son carved and figured that all out for me.

Love Homeschoolers!