Decorative fireplace with own hands

You can look at the fire endlessly, but few people can afford such luxury in an ordinary apartment – it is too difficult to get permission, and it will take a lot of money. There is a low-budget way out – to make an imitation of a fireplace. They build a portal that looks like a real one, install electrical devices, candles or bio-fireplaces inside. These structures are called differently: artificial, decorative or false fireplace. This idea has become very popular in recent years – you can make a decorative fireplace with your own hands in a few days, and you can get by with a very small amount. 

What is the portal made of?

You can make a false fireplace portal from any material. Indeed, from anyone – even from an old cabinet or table. But the most commonly used materials are:

• Drywall. A versatile material that can be used to make both flat and curved surfaces. First, a frame is assembled from profiles, which is then sheathed with drywall. A false plasterboard fireplace can be tiled like brick, stone, can be puttied and painted. If desired, you can decorate with polyurethane decorative elements. But then the parameters of the portal must be made taking into account these details.
  

  

• Plywood, fiberboard, TsSP, GVL, OSB. Working with plywood and fiberboard has long been mastered and presents no difficulties, and all other materials do not differ from them in terms of assembly. For such decorative fireplaces made of plywood and other sheet material, a frame is usually assembled from wooden bars of a small section – 30 * 30 mm or so. For finishing, you can use ceramic tiles with a suitable surface, but it is better to glue it on liquid nails. Also suitable for finishing a false fireplace is a new material – flexible stone.
  

  

• Brick. To bring the appearance of a decorative fireplace as close as possible to the present, you can use a brick. Spread the wall to the floor or a quarter of a brick. To give greater strength, a reinforcing mesh is laid in every third or fourth row. This option is possible only if the floor or ceiling beams can bear the weight of one or two hundred bricks, although the smallest (as in the figure) can be made up of fifty bricks.
  

  

They make portals for a false fireplace and from plastic panels, wood or cardboard. But they are used much less frequently. You can even use glass and metal, but working with them is more difficult.

What to put inside

No matter how beautiful the fireplace portal is, without fire, or at least its imitation, it has an unfinished look. There are several options:

• Buy an electric fireplace and build a frame around it. A good option, especially since it simultaneously performs the function of heating (due to the built-in fan heater). But it requires quite a substantial amount. Especially if there are such options as imitation of crackling firewood and LED backlighting.
  

  

• Put candles inside. Such fireplaces are even called candle. When making a portal for such a source of fire, it can be made shallow – 15-20 cm – this is more than enough.
  

  

• Biofireplace (also called ecofireplace). This is a small building made of glass, in which special biofuel burns without smoke and soot. It is absolutely safe and very decorative. It is still a living fire, albeit without smell and sound. Its minus is the price. For some models, it is comparable to the cost of installing a brick one, with the only difference being that a permit is not required for a bio-fireplace.
  

  

• Make something like fire with red, warm white and yellow LED lamps.

Decorative plywood fireplace: photo report

An electric fireplace with simulated flame was purchased. It was decided to make a frame for it from plywood. Furniture plywood 8 mm thick was used. The self-made portal was made in a few hours, its finishing took almost two days.

A frame is cut out of plywood according to the size of the front panel of the fireplace. At the bottom, the frame is wider by 10 cm, on the other three sides – by 7 cm.

The side parts are cut out according to the outer dimensions of the frame. The screen of the electric fireplace should be slightly “drowned” deep into the structure, and these details are the front part of the portal.

We collect all three parts into a single whole. To do this, you need a bar 10 * 20 mm and strips of plywood, 7 cm wide. From all this we assemble the front wall of the false fireplace.

Under the existing front panel, we make the rest of the frame. To add rigidity, we put jumpers at the top, along the upper edge of the front panel. We also install a bar at the bottom. A platform under the fireplace body rests on it. We sheathe the side walls with pieces of plywood cut to size.

Actually, a decorative fireplace with your own hands is almost ready. Remaining finishing work. Two types of ceramic tiles were chosen for decoration – gray “stone-like” and white “brick-like”. We begin to glue it on liquid nails. Work is progressing slowly – you have to cut into small pieces.

Partially cutting is obtained on a tile cutter, but often you have to use a grinder, and this is dusty, requires concentration – you can’t saw off more, and the edge should be even. The edges of cut tiles that remain open are sanded. And it’s time again. Because facing takes a lot of time, the work is tedious.

Almost in the middle of the work, an insight came: in order for the corner tiled to look neat, the edges of the tiles must be grinded at 45 °. It is very inconvenient to cut with a grinder at 45 °, it is much easier with a circular (found with a neighbor). Then the joint turns out, if not perfect (due to chips), then much more attractive.

All the seams between the tiles are sealed with grout of a suitable color, the joints began to look great. A tabletop is installed as the top panel. It turned out a false fireplace and at the same time a TV stand. The result pleased.

Drywall artificial fireplace

Drywall and profiles allow you to create decorative fireplaces of any size and configuration. First of all, you need to decide what size portal you want to make, draw it on a piece of paper or in one of the design programs, put down the dimensions, and think over the type of finish. Only then, according to the finished drawing, you can start working. So do it right.

Calculation of proportions and preparatory work

To make it easier to estimate the proportions, you can use the finished drawing. It is possible and necessary to change the dimensions to fit your conditions – this is not a real brick fireplace, in which all dimensions must be observed for normal operation, but only its imitation. So we boldly adjust the dimensions to our own ideas and the dimensions of the “fire” source.

If an electric fireplace is to be inserted into the portal, it is necessary to bring the power line to this area in advance. When laying the cable, use the laying rules: bring the wires to the outlet from above, strictly vertically (not at an angle or arbitrarily). In this case, when attaching drywall profiles to the wall, you definitely will not get into the wiring, since it is visually easy to determine its location – above the outlet. Fasteners are simply not installed in this space.

frame

If you are going to make a portal for candles, the dimensions can be even smaller. One of the drawings of a candle fireplace in the following drawing.

First, draw the main lines of the portal on the wall. Then, along them, we fasten the starting profile cut into pieces (in cross section it looks like the letter “P” without shelves on the sides).

Then, according to the drawing, we create a three-dimensional frame for a false fireplace. Vertical strips are immediately installed, marking the dimensions of the portal. The same frame is assembled on the floor as on the wall. The dimensions are on the drawing, but it would be useful to compare them with the actual ones so that there are no distortions. The finished frame is set at the desired distance, fixed with short sections of the profile, creating a voluminous box.

Lastly, a frame is assembled for a small podium in front of the “furnace” of a decorative fireplace. If you do it earlier, it will be inconvenient to work.

Features of working with GKL

Often questions arise when creating arches. To get a rounded line, the sidewalls of the profile are cut every 5-6 cm, leaving the “back” intact. In this form, it bends easily. During installation, each “petal” is attached to the crossbar (on both sides).

After the frame is ready, we sheathe it with drywall. It is cut with an ordinary clerical knife. In addition to it, you still need a long ruler. We mark the line on the drywall along which it must be cut. We attach a ruler to it and draw a knife along it. The main task is to cut the top sheet of cardboard; there is no need to cut through the gypsum. A bar is placed under the cut line, knocking on the sheet from one side or the other. The plaster breaks along the cut line, all that remains is to fold it and cut off the second cardboard elephant.

Rounded lines on drywall can be cut with an electric jigsaw, if available, or break off the gypsum in small pieces, and then level the edge with a knife (the gypsum is well turned).

How to fix

Drywall sheets are fastened to special self-tapping screws with a screw at the end. Due to their small size, they are called “fleas”. They must be twisted so that the heads are recessed, but the cardboard cannot be broken through. The installation step is 15-20 cm in straight sections without load and 10-15 cm in sections with bends. In short, this is all the wisdom of installing drywall.

To bend a sheet of gypsum that sheaths the arch of the “furnace”, it is cut on one side in strips 5-7 cm wide. Gypsum is broken along the cut lines, but the second sheet of cardboard is not cut. It turns out that the gypsum strips hang on this cardboard, because of this the strip bends well. It is applied to the profiles that form the bend, fastened with self-tapping screws. When installing, be careful, put the fasteners in the middle of the strip – pieces may break off at the edge.

Finishing

After the portal for the artificial fireplace is sheathed with drywall, you can start finishing. You can putty and paint it, you can tile it under a brick or stone, another option is an artificial facing stone.

It is more convenient to glue the lining on drywall with liquid nails or special glue for the selected material. It is only important that it can be used with drywall.

To make the portal for an artificial fireplace seem more voluminous, so that the “flame” game is more interesting, the part that goes to the wall is covered with a mirror (if an electric fireplace is not installed). The mirror can be ordinary, on glass, or maybe – flexible – acrylic. It is preferable because it does not beat.

The seams between the tiles are sealed with grout. Often it is chosen in a dark gray color, similar to a solution. Then from a distance the portal looks like a real one.

As you can see, making a decorative fireplace with your own hands is not too difficult. Especially for those who have at least a little experience with drywall. A more complex version, with stucco made “in place”, see the video.

Photo of fireplace imitations in the interior