First, we demoed the existing fireplace. See those cubby shelves? That was our only storage before this project. What an upgrade these built ins provided!
Adding Built Ins Around Our Fireplace
23 Materials
$1500
70 Hours
Medium
We redid our existing fireplace with new tile and floating mantle, then installed built ins around our fireplace to add functional storage and display space to our living room. We saved around $5,000 by doing this ourselves. Amazing!! FInd out how much we spent instead on the blog post: adding built ins around our fireplace.
We installed new cement board and moved on to tiling our fireplace.
With the tile and shiplap up, we installed support for the floating mantle.
Next, we moved onto the built ins. We added a base support for our cabinets to sit on.
The countertops went on the cabinets, then we moved on to the bookshelves.
First, the vertical sides of the shelving were screwed into a 2x4 support on the ceiling. We used painters tape to visualize where the horizontal shelves would go.
Next, we moved onto installing the horizontal shelves, and sanded, painted and touched up the shelves with white paint.
Last but not least, we installed the trim and mantle, and decorated! What a difference! Best of all, the storage is FUNCTIONAL for our young family! IF you love this project, pin it to your DIY board to read again later.
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Jennifer Roysdon9 hours agoI'm so jealous!!! We have a huge rock fireplace and nothing can be done with it. :(
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Melissa Wilson14 minutes agoAmazing job I'm going see if we can do this!
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Do you have info about corner fire places? Love what you did to your fire place. Thank you.
I'd like to know if you have/had any reservations bc of the closeness of the wood to the fireplace??? Or do ya'll plan on useing the fire place at all???
Just wondering bc I had a corner fire place and even though we had a good size mantel and hearth it still discolored our white sheetrock....
Just curious....
I can't believe you took out that beautiful surround/mantle...did you at least salvage it, or did you simply cut it up and throw it in the trash?
Not to mention that reclaimed, vintage mantles sell for $400+ on Etsy sites every day...It would be a shame if they destroyed it...Heck, I would've bought it from them...Seriously lol.