Decorative false fireplace with your own hands

You can look at the fire endlessly, but such a luxury in an ordinary apartment is not available to many people – it is too difficult to obtain permission, and money will require a lot. There is a low-budget way out – to make an imitation fireplace. Build a portal similar to the real one, inside install electric devices, candles or bio-fireplaces. Call these structures in different ways: artificial, decorative or false fireplace. This idea has become very popular in recent years – to make a decorative fireplace with your own hands can be done in a few days, while costing a very small amount.

What do you make a portal of

Make a portal of a false fireplace can be made of any material. Really from any – even from an old closet or table. But most often the following materials are used:

• Plasterboard. A universal material from which you can make both flat and curved surfaces. First, a frame is assembled from profiles, which is then covered with gypsum board. False fireplace from gypsum board can be finished with tiles under the brick, stone, you can putty and paint. If desired, you can decorate with polyurethane decorative elements. But then the parameters of the portal should be made taking into account these details.

  

• Plywood, fiberboard, particleboard, GFB, OSB. Work with plywood and fiberboard has long been mastered and the difficulties are present, and all other materials do not differ from them in terms of assembly. For such decorative fireplaces from plywood and other sheet material usually collect a frame of wooden bars of small cross-section – 30 * 30 mm or so. For finishing you can use ceramic tiles with a suitable surface, but it is better to glue it on liquid nails. Also suitable for finishing falsh-kamina new material – flexible stone.

  

• Brick. To maximize the appearance of the decorative fireplace to the real one, you can use brick. Lay out the wall in a half or quarter brick. To give greater strength, lay a reinforcing mesh in every third or fourth row. This option is possible only if the floor beams or flooring can bear the weight of one or two hundred bricks, although the smallest (as in the figure) can be folded from fifty bricks.

  

Do portals for false fireplace and from plastic panels, wood or cardboard. But they are used much less often. You can even use glass and metal, but it is more difficult to work with them.

What to put inside

No matter how beautiful the fireplace portal is, without fire, or at least its imitation, it has an incomplete look. There are several options:

• Buy an electric fireplace and build a frame around it. Not a bad option, especially since it performs simultaneously and heating function (due to the built-in fan heater). But it requires quite a substantial amount of money. Especially if there are such options as imitation of wood crackling and LED lighting.

  

• Put candles inside. Such fireplaces are even called candle fireplaces. When making a portal for such a source of fire, it can be made shallow – 15-20 cm – this is more than enough.

  

• Biofireplace (also called ecofireplace). This is a small structure made of glass, in which burns without smoke and soot special biofuel. It is absolutely safe and very decorative. It is still a living fire, although without odor and sound. Its disadvantage is the price. For some models it is comparable to the cost of a brick device with the only difference that the bio-fireplace does not require a permit.

  

• Make something similar to a fire from LED lamps of red, warm white and yellow color.

Decorative fireplace from plywood: photo report

An electric fireplace with flame imitation was bought. It was decided to make a frame for it from plywood. Furniture plywood with a thickness of 8 mm was used. Homemade portal was made in a few hours, its finishing took almost two days.

A frame is cut out of plywood according to the dimensions of the front panel of the fireplace. The frame is 10 cm wider at the bottom and 7 cm wider on the other three sides.

Side parts are cut out according to the outer dimensions of the frame. The screen of the electric fireplace should be slightly “recessed” into the depth of the structure, and these parts are the front part of the portal.

All three parts are assembled into a single whole. To do this, you will need a bar 10*20 mm and plywood strips, 7 cm wide. From all this we assemble the front wall of the false fireplace.

Under the existing front panel make the rest of the frame. To give rigidity, we put lintels at the top, along the top edge of the faceplate. At the bottom we also install a bar. On it rests the platform under the body of the fireplace. Side walls are covered with cut to size pieces of plywood.

Actually, the decorative fireplace with his own hands is almost ready. Finishing work remains. For finishing selected ceramic tiles of two types – gray “under the stone” and white “under the brick”. We begin to glue it on liquid nails. The work progresses slowly – we have to cut it into small pieces.

Partially cut is obtained on the tile cutter, but often have to use a Bulgarian, and it is dusty, requires concentration – you can not saw off more, and the edge must be even. The edges of the cut tiles, which remain open, sanded. And this – again time. Therefore, facing takes a lot of time, the work is tedious.

Almost to the middle of the work came an insight: that the corner, tiled looked neat, the edges of the tiles should be machined at 45 °. Bolgarka cut at 45 ° is very inconvenient, much easier circular (found at the neighbor). Then the joint turns out to be if not perfect (because of the chips), then much more attractive.

All the joints between the tiles are sealed with grout of a suitable color, the joints began to look great. The countertop is installed as the top panel. It turned out to be a false fireplace and at the same time a TV stand. The result pleased.

Artificial fireplace made of plasterboard

Plasterboard and profiles allow you to create decorative fireplaces of any size and configuration. First of all, you need to determine what size portal you want to make, draw it on a sheet of paper or in one of the design programs, set the dimensions, think about the type of finish. Only then, according to the finished drawing you can start work. This is the right way to do it.

Calculation of proportions and preparatory work

To make it easier to estimate the proportions, you can use a ready-made drawing. Change the dimensions under your own conditions can and should – this is not a real brick fireplace, in which for normal operation all the dimensions must be observed, but only its imitation. So we can safely adjust the dimensions to our own ideas and the size of the source of” fire”.

If the portal will be inserted into the electric fireplace, it is necessary in this area in advance to bring the power line. When laying the cable, use the rules of laying: bring the wires to the socket from above, strictly vertical (not inclined or arbitrary). In this case, when fixing profiles for drywall to the wall, you will definitely not get into the wiring, as it is visually easy to determine its location – above the outlet. In this space, simply do not install fasteners.

Frame

If you are going to make a portal for candles, the dimensions can be even smaller. One of the drawings of the candle fireplace on the following drawing.

First on the wall draw the main lines of the portal. Then, according to them screw the starting profile cut into pieces (it in the cross-section has the form of the letter “U” without shelves on the sides).

Then according to the drawing we create a volumetric frame for the false fireplace. Immediately install vertical strips, marking the dimensions of the portal. On the floor, the same frame is assembled as on the wall. The dimensions are on the drawing, but it is not unreasonable to compare them with the actual ones, so that there are no skews. The finished frame is installed at the required distance, fixed with short sections of the profile, creating a volumetric box.

In the last turn, the frame for a small podium in front of the “firebox” of the decorative fireplace is assembled. If you make it earlier, it will be inconvenient to work.

Features of working with GKL

Often questions arise when creating arches. To get a rounded line, every 5-6 cm notch the sides of the profile, leaving the “back” intact. In this form, it is easy to bend. During installation, each “petal” (from both sides) is attached to the crossbar.

After the frame is ready, cover it with plasterboard. It is cut with an ordinary stationery knife. In addition to it, you need a long ruler. Mark the line on the drywall, along which it should be cut. We attach the ruler to it and run the knife along it. The main task is to cut the top sheet of cardboard, it is not necessary to cut through the gypsum. Under the cut line put any bar, knock on the sheet from one side or the other. The plaster breaks along the cut line, all that remains is to fold it and cut off the second piece of cardboard.

Rounded lines on drywall can be cut with an electric jigsaw, if available, or break off the gypsum in small pieces, and then level the edge with a knife (gypsum is well trimmed).

How to fix

Plasterboard sheets are fixed on special self-tapping screws with a screw at the end. Because of their small size, they are called “fleas”. They should be screwed in such a way that the heads are recessed, but at the same time do not tear through the cardboard. The step of installation – 15-20 cm in straight areas without load and 10-15 cm in areas with bends. In short, this is all the wisdom of installing drywall.

To bend the sheet of gypsum, covering the vault of the “firebox”, it is notched on one side with strips 5-7 cm wide. Along the lines of the cut, the gypsum is broken, but the second sheet of cardboard is not cut. It turns out that the strips of plaster hang on this cardboard, because of this strip bends well. It is applied to the profiles that form the bend, fasten it with self-tapping screws. When mounting be careful, put the fasteners in the middle of the strip – with the edge pieces can break off.

Finishing

After the portal for the artificial fireplace is covered with plasterboard, you can start finishing. You can putty and paint it, you can cover it with tiles under brick or stone, another option – artificial facing stone.

On the drywall facing is more convenient to glue on liquid nails or a special glue for the selected material. It is only important that it can be used with drywall.

To portal for an artificial fireplace seemed more voluminous, so that the game of “flame” was more interesting, the part that goes to the wall is closed with a mirror (if not to be installed electric fireplace). The mirror can be ordinary, on the glass, and can be flexible – acrylic. It is preferable, as it does not break.

The seams between the tiles are sealed with grout. Often it is chosen dark gray, similar to mortar. Then from afar the portal looks like a real one.

As you can see, make a decorative fireplace with your own hands is not too difficult. Especially those who have at least a little experience with drywall. A more complex variant, with moldings made “in place”, see the video.

Photo of imitation fireplace in the interior