This article is not typical for a site that discusses heating and ventilation, as it will talk about a popular homemade homemade product - a life-size fireplace imitation. Of course, the dummy is not able to fully replace the real hearth with flaming firewood. But the beautifully designed portal fits perfectly into the interior of the apartment and can decorate the free space along the wall or in the corner of the room. So let's see what of the available materials will go into making a fake fireplace and how to do it yourself.
What can be made a decorative hearth
To answer this question, we have collected scattered information, photos and videos published on the Internet by home craftsmen. If you set a goal to make an artificial fireplace yourself, you will surely find the right material from the list:
- cardboard boxes (for example, from the TV) or sheet corrugated cardboard used as packaging;
- Particleboard, regular plywood and OSB, fiberboard;
- drywall sheets (gypsum plasterboard), fixed to a frame made of wood or steel galvanized profiles;
- facing brick.
The easiest and fastest way to make a fireplace portal out of the box from a TV or other household appliances. The fake centers depicted in the photo are of little use for many years of operation, but they are easily installed in the right place. As a rule, a cardboard fireplace serves as a decoration for the New Year and other public holidays, after which it is cleaned into the pantry.
From the rest of the materials, including polystyrene, stationary models of fake fireplaces are made that can last for many years. They are designed according to the interior of the apartment and in various ways create an imitation of fire or surround with candles. We propose to consider the manufacture of each option separately.
Tip. Whatever manufacturing method you choose, first determine the place for the artificial hearth and sketch a drawing with dimensions by hand. This will simplify the calculation of the amount of materials and the selection of design style.
Carton box model
For work you need a simple set of tools - scissors, tape measure with a ruler and a stationery knife. From additional materials, prepare PVA glue, old newspapers or paper and scotch tape. Homemade false fireplace is made in different ways depending on the source material:
- The large box from the TV is bent to the desired size, as shown in the photo. An opening is cut out in the middle to simulate the hearth, and the former front panel of the package, divided in half, now serves as the walls of a niche - a fake fuel chamber.
- It is easy to assemble a portal in the form of the letter “P” from several cardboard boxes of the same size, gluing them together with PVA and scotch tape.
- From the sheets of corrugated cardboard it will be necessary to glue the individual elements of the decorative fireplace - the frame, the pre-furnace platform with the base and the upper shelf, and then assemble them into one. How to do this correctly is shown below in the diagram.
Recommendation. Try to use less adhesive tape on the front side that you plan to trim. It is difficult to stick anything to a slippery surface.
To hide the joints in the corners and in the middle of the portal, cover them with old newspapers or paper. Another option is to buy a polyurethane imitation of gypsum stucco molding and close all problem areas with the help of decor elements.
If it is necessary to strengthen the home-made structure so that it does not “fold” along and across its axis, install cardboard stiffeners on the back, putting them on glue.Strengthening of thin walls is easily performed using strips of the same corrugated cardboard folded with an accordion, as is done in the photo.
Note. The manufacturing technology of the corner version of the fireplace is no different than the wall model. Only large packaging will have to be bent differently, and sheets of the same type will be formed, and only then - portal elements.
The finished case of a false fireplace remains to be finished in any chosen way, for example:
- to paste over with wallpaper imitating brickwork;
- lined with bricks cut with their own hands from thin foam;
- decorate with polyurethane or foam stucco molding;
- sheathe plastic panels with imitation of artificial and natural stone, masonry, and so on.
Fireplace portal made of wood and plywood
In this case, you will need the following lumber:
- wooden beam with a section of 4 x 4 cm - on the main (corner) racks of the frame;
- the same size 4 x 2 cm - for jumpers;
- solid wood worktop or laminated particleboard - on the top shelf;
- any cheap plywood - for covering;
- suitable finishing material - artificial stone, plastic panels, polyurethane moldings, tiles and so on.
Instrumentation is also available - hacksaw, drill, measuring devices. For fasteners, take ordinary black self-tapping screws, if necessary - perforated steel corners and stripes. If you plan to paint a fake fireplace, get an acrylic composition of the desired color.
Next, proceed to the manufacture of the portal, following the individual drawing and step-by-step instructions:
- Measure and cut the bars in size. At the same time, consider the thickness of the plywood, otherwise the product will turn out more than you expected.
- Assemble the frame of the product by twisting the bars with screws and withstanding angles of 90 ° between the uprights and horizontal elements. From below, make an expanded base, and from the top of the rack immediately attach to a wide board that plays the role of a shelf.
- Install stiffeners on the sides in the form of jumpers or jibs. Form the arch of the portal by attaching a horizontal beam at its upper point.
- Attach the frame to a wall or floor in a selected location and sheathe plywood, including a niche. If you want to get an arch vault, cut out the corresponding rounding on the front sheet.
An important point. In the case when you need to put an electric firebox with an imitation of flame inside an artificial fireplace, the dimensions of the opening should correspond to its dimensions. Another caveat: behind the wall and the furnace body, be sure to maintain a distance of at least 5 cm.
The simplest and most inexpensive option for cladding is to cover the cracks between the sheets of plywood with putty, clean it with sandpaper, and then paint it. Another cheap way is finishing with PVC panels imitating bricks, which is shown in the photo. How to properly attach this material is described in the corresponding article.
The mantelpiece should be sanded and varnished if it is made of solid wood. All that remains is to arrange the portal to give the impression of burning in a pseudo-fuel. Briefly and clearly, the assembly process is shown in the video:
Making a false plasterboard fireplace
Here you can go in two ways - to assemble a portal on a wooden frame, as described in the previous section, or on a frame of steel galvanized profiles. Since the future construction carries minimal loads, the choice of material for the frame does not play a special role.
But the installation sequence is changing - the racks of this capital structure are initially attached to the wall. The procedure is as follows:
- Using the drawing, draw a contour of the future decorative fireplace on the wall with a pencil.
- Using dowels, attach horizontal and vertical profiles (wooden blocks) along the lines drawn on the wall.
- Assemble the frame from wall and ceiling profiles for the installation of gypsum boards, starting from the side walls.Last of all, a firebox niche is formed.
- Sheathe the frame with drywall and seal all joints with putty. Do not rush to install a fireplace insert - it is mounted after the finish.
Note. In principle, nothing prevents you from first assembling the frame, and then screwing it to the wall and sheathing the GCR. But there is one point: the angle between the floor and the wall probably differs from 90 °. Then one of the planes of your product does not lie on building structures.
The fake fireplace, lined with drywall, has one important advantage - it can be finished with anything, including tile, which looks very presentable. Therefore, we will not list ways to decorate the portal (there are too many of them), but offer to familiarize yourself with the next video on its assembly:
Almost real brick fireplace insert
Despite the complexity in the construction of such a structure and its cost, brickwork will give the maximum approximation to a natural living hearth. Plus strength and durability - unlike GKL, stone is not afraid of accidental shock loads.
Reference. The designs described earlier are fire hazardous to one degree or another. As soon as the child overturns a lit candle in a niche, a cardboard or wooden product will quickly ignite. A decorative candle fireplace built of bricks will not ignite under any circumstances.
Of course, a reliable foundation is necessary for masonry, so it is strongly recommended that residents of apartment buildings not build such false fireplaces on floors. Another thing is the first floor of a private house, where during the repair of floors you can lay the foundation in the form of a concrete slab.
To work, you will need a standard tool - a trowel, a wide spatula and a building level with a plumb line. To put a decorative brick “in a wasteland” beautifully, rent a special masonry template shown in the picture.
Brick imitation of the fireplace is laid out in the following sequence:
- Determine the dimensions of the building and adjust it to the standard brick length of 25 cm. Recalculate the amount of building material and buy a ready-mixed cement-based building mixture.
- Clean the base, prepare the mortar and lay out the first continuous row, observing the horizontal along the entire plane. Then lay the second row with a dressing, using the template. The hearth is ready.
- Constantly monitoring the vertical, build the walls of a false fireplace to the height of the firebox (approximately 60-70 cm), then block the opening from above with steel corners.
- Lay the last 4-5 rows of bricks and let the mortar in the masonry harden for 3-4 days. Then install the top shelf of wood or other material.
Tip. You can build such a fireplace from any brick, including used and old. Only it will have to be thoroughly cleaned, and at the end of work - painted or coated with colorless varnish. As a basis, take the orders of a real English fireplace, but without a chimney and internal partitions: put only the outer walls and the pseudo-fuel.
In conclusion - on the imitation of fire
Making a decorative fireplace cannot be called complete without creating the appearance of a burning flame in a firebox. We offer several options for how to organize such an effect:
- A popular way is to place a mirror near the rear wall of the niche and put lighted candles;
- use the products of new technologies - LED ribbons or candles (there are some);
- to mount in the portal an electric fireplace, decorative firebox or bio fireplace with a real flame;
- integrate small lights;
- put an electronic photo frame equipped with a large liquid crystal display in the opening and load the image of a burning fire into its memory.
New-fashioned LED devices simulate a good heat, the main thing is to arrange everything correctly.The photo shows a good example with a luminous ribbon laid out around the perimeter of the firebox. The composition can be supplemented with artificial firewood and other commercially available accessories.