Make A Feature Wall For Mounting Fireplace And TV
For those thinking of installing a gas or electric fireplace, this feature wall allows for easy fitting and you can also mount the TV.
23/03/2021
With winter on the horizon and temperatures already starting to drop, many homeowners will be looking for ways to keep their home warm when it's cold outside. Installing an electric or gas fireplace is an easy way to bring heat into a home and set up a focal point in a living room. The only problem is mounting the fireplace into the wall.
No homeowner wants to go through the mess of cutting out a wall and putting up with all the mess to install a fireplace, and that's why many opt for a freestanding electric heater instead. But there is an easy way to mount a fireplace into a wall - if you build a fake wall or a wall that will accommodate a gas or electric fireplace and your TV as well.
Making a fake wall for a fireplace is a project that many homeowners take on and it isn't a difficult or expensive project either. Using a selection of pine products, you can assemble the frame for the fake fireplace wall and then clad this with inexpensive pine tongue and groove panels that are sanded smooth and then painted over.
The fireplace wall shown here is a pretty basic design that incorporates a frame using PAR pine and that comes in readily available 2.4 metres lengths, which is perfect for most living room heights. It is a matter of simply assembling a sturdy frame consisting of uprights and cross-pieces, to support whatever cladding you want to use.
If you want to look at a rock cladding on the fireplace wall, all you need to do is wrap the frame in a 3mm plywood or SupaWood board and secure the rock cladding onto this. Voila... an instant focal point for your living room and one that didn't involve any knocking down of walls.
HOW TO WORK OUT DIMENSIONS AND MEASUREMENTS
SketchUp is used around the world by designers, architects and DIY enthusiasts to draw up plans, large or small. It is free software that lets you draw furniture, diagrams and many other types of drawings and helps you to visualise and work out measurements for cutting lists. Download a free version of SketchUp Make 2017 here.
Once you have downloaded the program and gone over the basics, you will be able to use it to input measurements, add available material dimensions and draw up a sketch of your fireplace wall. And once you have that, you can easily work out the materials you need to complete the project.
ASSEMBLING A FIREPLACE WALL
The process for building a fireplace wall starts with a drawing or diagram that takes into consideration the size of the wall you want to make. With these measurements in hand, pop online to the Builders.co.za website and determine what materials are available and in stock so that you can buy what you need and collect or have it delivered. You can even arrange to have all the pieces cut to the right size for even easier assembly.
The frame for the wall doesn't need to be fancy or perfect, since it will be hidden behind the cladding. It must, however, be sturdy and well put together. You can go stingy on the materials and use reclaimed pine but only use quality fastenings when assembling everything.
You can purchase pine tongue and groove to clad the finished fireplace wall, or you can look at alternative options. Since you are building the project yourself, how it looks is up to you.
adoramae.com/diy-electric-fireplace-build