Faux Fireplace and Accent Wall

One of my favorite things about helping homeowners design their spaces is helping them to solve a challenging space.

The Brow Family contacted me regarding the wall in their living room. The wall was brown paneling and featured an off center section of brick that only went part way up the wall.

They were at a loss with what to do with the wall and the brick. My first thought was to make it a focal point. We talked about painting the paneling to match the rest of the room and then building a faux fireplace around the brick. It would allow them to put candles or decor inside the faux fireplace.

I sent them a few options for faux fireplace design. They liked the thought of shiplap, but weren’t sure that it would look good with the paneling. They chose to do shiplap on each side of the fireplace and completely hiding the paneling. This also allowed us to use stone for the bottom portion of the fireplace.

To get started, I attached a 2×6 board to the ceiling with 4″ construction screws making sure it was centered on the wall and screwed into the rafters above. I then added a 2×6 on each side making sure that they were level. I then added a cross piece above the brick, and then 2 supports in the middle.

To make sure the shiplap fit behind the stone, we shifted gears and started to install prefinished shiplap to the walls using liquid nails and a nail gun. We opted for a staggered design that incorporated full width planks and then 1/3 and 2/3 length planks.

After the shiplap was up, I continued to frame the fireplace with 2x6s (we wanted to make sure we left enough depth for an electric fireplace insert to be added eventually if they wanted to). I attached another 2×6 (cut to the height of the cross piece on top of the brick) to each of the existing sides and then added a 2×6 on top attached to the existing cross piece on top of the brick. I then framed inside it to add support for the barn beam mantle.

The homeowners originally weren’t going to put their television to above the fireplace, but eventually came around to the idea. So we added 2x4s to the inside uprights to create an area to easily attach the tv mount to. We made sure to leave a space to reach the plug.

I also added extra framing to where the barn beam would attach.

We were finally at the point where we could build a hearth. We built a box out of 2x12s and attached them to the frame. We finally could attach plywood to the framing and then start adding Airstone to the bottom of the fireplace.

We stained oak plywood in the color Briarsmoke and attached it to the top of the fireplace. The homeowners added their television and we were finally ready to attach the Airstone.

We finished off the fireplace with a 2×12 boards as the top of the hearth and we added simple 1×4 trim to the top of the fireplace. We were finally able to bring in the 7×7 barn beam as the mantel.

The last step was adding 2 shelves on each side of the fireplace.

I love how this feature wall turned out! Not only is it a great focal point, but it also created a better layout in the room for their furniture.

This is what Brittany, the homeowner, had to say about their new faux fireplace:

“Becky is so talented and worked wonders with our wall! We love everything about it! It has come such a long way and we owe it all to her! She is great to work with, easy to work with, and can do anything!!! She is awesome! She even tied in some modern touches without me knowing, along with getting me a wooden beam from a family farm barn! ..and to think there was never a fireplace there.. Thank you Becky, and Boxwood Design, for making this such a wonderful view to make our home come together! We love it! Lets just say…I wonder what we want her to do next!  “

Thanks for following along on this journey with me!