I found a fireplace in a skip…. I’ve been meaning to clear some space in my front room and open up the old fireplace. I guess that means its time to do it!
First step was to use a carbide scraper and a detail sander to strip back the peeling varnish.
Then I painted the fire surround with some chalk paint I’d picked up at Aldi. I left the inlayed design as I quite liked it!
Next step was the fun bit….. Cut out and smash up the old covering!
Annoyingly I had to relocate a plug socket but it does mean that I could fit a double socket with USB ports in a handy location. This means that I can put some twinkly lights in the fireplace when I’m done and still have sockets for charging phones and laptops etc.
Added some framing so I can bring the wood that I’m going to use as a ‘hearthstone’ above the level of the carpet.
Cut and fitted some ply to cap off the chimney. This is screwed into some battens that I fixed inside the chimney.
The ‘hearthstone’ is cut from some scaffolding board and some very old house timbers that I’ve had lying around in my workshop.
The fireplace is done and I’m pretty pleased with it. It’ll look even better when I get a new TV that I can mount to the wall and run HDMI and power cables out of the way.