Making the Most of an Ugly Fireplace
by
Ogmichelle45
1 Material
Our home has Cedar Ceilings in every room. There is no nice way to say this but the original builder made an eye sore when building this fireplace. Sure I had grander ideas, like a curved hearth, building in seats under the windows but we had other projects going on and wanted something we could do in a weekend. The fireplace isn't even in the middle of the room...look at the windows up top.
I made me an award called "Owner of the UGLIEST Fireplace ever" . As you can see from the photos we tried to do something. I have been very creative and enjoyed many of our "projects" but this was the stumper. I just remained patient and knew someday my husband and I would come up with the right plan.
Absolutely the light fixture had to go, to me it looked like a cheap wastepaper basket. Who wants people thinking this is a basketball goal?
First place was doing something with that focal wall. We tried a few ideas but settled on using cedar boards going vertical instead of diagonal. We wanted the cedar boards to compliment the cedar ceilings.
The mantel was limited to our skill set. 
This is a 3 sided box with molding attached to top and bottom. We stained it and we used shelf brackets to attach to fireplace.
This is a 3 sided box with molding attached to top and bottom. We stained it and we used shelf brackets to attach to fireplace.
The hearth was to short to even sit on and its narrow hearth is what made it ugly with floor tile on it. After redoing two houses in 15 months we started looking how to make our projects simpler. The hearth was extended and we simply stained the wood and tile. Husband and I are at odds what design we wanted for the granite or marble.
Here it is boxed in and giving a more pleasing size hearth.
This is the best picture I have at the time of the post. I hope you enjoyed and inspired by our simplistic approach to making Ugly into average.
Comments
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2 of 12 comments
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I want to cry right with you! You won! I would love to hunt down the construction expert on that project just to ask: WHY?
I'm thinking of the top of my head: Bookcases on both sides, build the bump out to both ends - so the chimney and sides are one. You could extended a mantel on shelf brackets and put molding around the sides like we did and it will be more of an optical illusion. I did see on pintrest ideas how to paint the tile and get rid of the brass enclosure.
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Amazing job such a difference ur den looks amazing!!!! I would love to see a close up picture of ur fireplace!
Frequently asked questions
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Do you use this fireplace? After the modification, can the hearth withstand fire/ heat? For instance if an ember was to spark out?