HOME RENOVATION SERIES: Ep 8: LIVING ROOM FIREPLACE

I’m back with another Home Renovation Series post! Our last renovation post was the Nursery Reveal and I’ve been meaning to share this one for awhile. If you’ve been following me on Instagram, I shared the issues I’ve been having with my website. Bad news is that not everything is fixed, but the good news is that the site is back up and working enough to share new posts. We’ll get there! 😉 My very first Home Renovation post in this series was on our LIVING ROOM, and since then, we’ve added one more element to the room, a FIREPLACE!

I’ve always wanted a fireplace in our home and I had been seeing a few videos of other people adding them to their homes. I showed Conor a few of them and he was immediately all for it!

{Each episode in this series has a corresponding YouTube video – see the SERIES PLAYLIST HERE!}

BEFORE

DURING

We were originally going to put the tv mount on a flat front wall, but after thinking it over, we decided to recess it so the tv lays flatter on the face of the bump out. Conor also decided to add a door on the right side of the enclosure for electrical.

ABOUT the Fireplace INSERT:

I found this insert on Home Depot’s website originally, but after looking around I found it for half the price on Amazon so I ultimately went with that one. We have the 42″ model. It has a remote with multiple settings – you can change the color, intensity, and speed of the flame, you can choose heat or no heat, and it has a timer. It also comes with the option of a faux wood insert or clear glass rocks for a more modern look. The faux wood insert works best in our home.

We went back and forth on the mantle type and ultimately went with this one. Currently it’s still raw wood and needs to be finished, but with an infant in the house and Conor being slightly allergic to stain, we are going to wait until spring when we can air out. The other option we are considering is a gel stain or just a finishing wax.

Instead of doing a custom hearth slab, we chose these square slabs and cut them to fit. Currently there is no grout between them, but we may do that in the future or just leave it as is.

WHAT WE USED:

2×4’s for Framing
Screws
3/4″ OSB or Plywood
Fireplace Insert
Mantle
Stone Slabs for Hearth
Ledger Stone
Mortar

AFTER

Here’s the FINAL result (minus the mantle stain if we choose to go that route). We LOVE how it turned out and Conor did an amazing job.