In this DIY fireplace makeover tutorial, you’ll learn how to transform an uneven fireplace wall into a beautiful fireplace mantel and bookcase combo.
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Our design process for our DIY Fireplace Makeover
We started off with a long brick wall and an uneven fireplace. A couple years ago I whitewashed the brick, transforming the brick wall from an outdated brownish red color to a whitish-grayish color. It made a huge difference!
More recently, I decided I wanted the brick to be white, so I painted it solid white. And then… we decided to completely redo the entire wall!
Why we covered the brick wall
There were three main reasons we covered our brick wall.
- The goal of the wall was to be able to hang our TV on it, so we could see it from the kitchen. We didn’t think the TV would look right on the brick wall without a built in unit surrounding it.
- I wanted to place our couches facing each other, which would help open up the room. The old layout of the room with our sectional was fine, but it blocked off the room, making it feel much smaller than it actually is. When we bought our new couches, I wanted to open it up and have them face each other!
- A lot of cold air was coming in through our bricks, making our living room really chilly. We wanted to cover up the majority of the brick to keep the room warmer and help out our electricity bills!
We drew up a design idea on paper first and then taped off our wall with the look we were going for. We only had masking tape on hand, so we used that to tape the brick. Unfortunately, the tape was so close to the color of the brick that we had to go through and color the tape with marker so we could actually see the outline of our design. If only we’d had painter’s tape on hand!
The tape outline helped us ensure that our measurements would be right and that we actually liked the design idea before doing the actual work of building the unit.
I’m so glad we did this mockup using tape because it helped us visualize our end result. We adjusted it slightly and when we were happy with it, we got to work!
Jason built the entire unit from scratch! Talk about an undertaking. When he was done, I went through and painted the fireplace unit. I also painted the ceiling and the walls throughout the rest of the room. It was a lot of work, but now that it’s done, I’m so happy with the result. All that hard work paid off.
We are thrilled with the new layout of the room. I love the open concept of the couch layout and that the TV is centered on the wall. I also now have bookshelves to decorate which is basically a dream come true. The fireplace is clearly still off-center but I think this solution helped the unit look centered as a whole.
I have an idea for the open brick square that I think will make the entire wall come together. I plan to build a faux wood log insert, so that it looks like that brick square houses actual logs. That will be a future DIY project, and I’ll be sure to link it on this post when it’s done!
Let’s get into the build process. The following is a tutorial for how Jason did our DIY fireplace makeover!
DIY Fireplace Makeover Tutorial
STEP 1: GATHER MATERIALS
For this project, Jason built two custom bookshelves, a mantel, and added plywood above the mantel to connect the two bookshelves.
Here’s a full list of materials we used:
- (3) 4×8 sheets (1/2 inch) of Ecuadorian Plywood – (used for the majority of the project, for the mantel including the mantel posts and as backboard to connect the bookcases & mantel. Jason hand cut these boards for the entire mantel to make a board and batten style look.)
- (8) melamine boards 1′ x 3/4” x 8′ – (used for the bookshelves sides and shelves. 4 of these boards were predrilled with bookshelf holes and used as the sides of the bookcases.)
- (2) 1/8th” 4” x 8” melamine sheets for back of bookcases
- 3/4” x 2” trim board on shelf exteriors
- 3/4” x 8” x 16′ primed pine wood for mantel shelf
- 3 5/8” crown for mantel
- 2 x 4 lumber (used as wood anchors to drill plywood into)
- Caulk
- 1/2” shelf tabs for bookshelves
- crown molding for the top of the entire unit
- Rotary hammer drill (used to drill into brick to attach 2 x 4 wood anchors)
- Compressor and finish nail gun (used to shoot in the plywood to the wood anchors)
- Cordless skill saw (used to cut plywood for the whole project, including making board and batten for mantel)
- Wood glue (used to join two pieces of wood together before nailing them)
- Liquid nails Heavy Duty construction adhesive (used to secure plywood to brick)
- Tapcon concrete screws (used to fasten the wood to the brick wall)
- Drill
- Table saw
- miter saw and stand (used to cut small board and batten as well and base trim on mantel posts)
- Oscillating tool (used to touch up cuts)
- Sledge hammer (used to knock down bricks that were sticking out of brick wall)
- Level
- Measuring tape
STEP 2: DO MOCK UP WITH TAPE
As noted above in our design process, we did a complete mock up using masking tape FIRST. This way we could see the unit outline and adjust it before making actual cuts.
STEP 3: BUILD DIY FIREPLACE MANTEL
The first step to building the mantel was actually removing the couple bricks that were sticking out, which were used for the previous mantel. They came off really easily.
To build the mantel, Jason first had to use a rotary hammer drill to drill into the brick.
He attached small pieces of 2 x 4 lumber using tapcon concrete screws. He also made sure they were aligned straight using a level.
Here’s how it looked once the 2 x 4 lumber was in place as wood anchors.
Next, he created a wood box using Ecuadorian Plywood to be the foundation of the mantel. He secured it over the 2 x 4 wood anchors.
Next, he did the same thing to create the mantel posts, using 2 x 4 lumber as wood anchors and then attaching the Ecuadorian plywood boxes to those.
Here’s how it looked once the foundation boxes were done.
Jason then made the mantel top.
Crown molding was added as the finishing touch on the mantel top.
After that he created a board and batten look using more Ecuadorian plywood.
The middle section of the mantel was the last part that was needed to complete the mantel section of the DIY project. He completed this the same way he did the rest of the mantel box structure.
Here’s how the mantel portion of it looked once it was complete.
STEP 4: MAKE CUSTOM BOOKSHELVES
For this DIY fireplace makeover, Jason made custom bookshelves to fit on either end of the fireplace mantel. We knew this would give the unit a finished look.
To build the bookshelves on either end, Jason used (4) 1′ x 3/4” x 8′ melamine boards that had predrilled bookshelf holes. These made up the sides of the bookcases.
He used (4) 1′ x 3/4” x 8′ melamine boards that didn’t have any predrilled holes for the actual shelves. He had to cut these to fit perfectly in the bookshelves.
The backs of the bookcases were made of (2) 1/8th” 4” x 8” melamine sheets.
Lastly, he added 3/4” x 2” trim boards on the shelf exteriors. This made the bookcases look even better! You can see below how thick the shelves look!
STEP 5: ADD PLYWOOD TO REMAINING BRICK
Jason secured plywood to the remaining brick to connect the bookcases and the mantel, which made it look like one cohesive unit.
During this process, we had to move the electrical so that we could easily hook up the TV without having cords hanging down everywhere.
STEP 6: PAINT IT WHITE
After Jason finished the DIY fireplace makeover build and caulked everything, I painted it all white. I used the color Ultra Pure White by Behr Paint. It is a beautiful bright white and such a high quality paint.
I also painted the ceiling of our living room during this process and I had some leftover paint, so I used it for the bricks since they had some red residue leftover from when Jason knocked down a couple of the red bricks.
The ceiling paint was Glidden flat white ceiling paint. It’s not nearly as bright white as the Ultra Pure White by Behr Paint, which was why I wanted to use it on the bricks.
I wanted to give the bricks a little contrast between the bright white unit.
I love how it turned out!
Here are the finished results:
