Ready for more progress on the fireplace? There’s been a lot of work since the last update, when we tiled the hearth and part of the surround with marble subway tile.
That tiling was the more straightforward step. The next phase—building out the rest of the frame—required adding quite a few materials and doing some careful fitting.
We chose MDF for the frame because it’s lighter, less expensive, and smoother than solid wood (the panel we bought was also sold without formaldehyde and is FSC certified). A 4 ft x 8 ft sheet cost about $35, and fortunately one sheet provided all the pieces we needed.
The first pieces of the frame were the two side panels that sit on the floor and extend up to the mantel. I cut those pieces to size and attached them at a right angle using a Kreg Jig and wood glue for extra strength.
Wood glue became our go-to during this project. We used a nail gun for speed—one shot rather than drilling pilot holes and screwing—but we relied on wood glue to give the joints long-term strength since nails alone don’t hold as tightly as screws over time.
To connect the two side sections, I cut a middle span on the table saw and joined the three pieces with scrap 1×2 whitewood for reinforcement. The assembled frame fits snugly around the original brick fireplace, which we discovered was in rough shape beneath the old mantel.
Because the brick tapered away slightly toward the floor, the MDF sat flush against the brick at the top but floated a couple of inches away near the bottom. We filled that gap with thin MDF strips where the frame met the tile so the face would be even and balanced from the side view.
Although the frame felt steady, we didn’t want to rely on balance alone. We secured it with masonry screws through the top and sides and applied construction adhesive where the MDF met brick to make sure it stayed put.
Next came the mantel. The old mantel was too small to reuse, and we discovered the brick wasn’t level enough to mount a new mantel directly to it. So we cut more MDF from the same sheet and added a flat top to the frame, fastening it with glue and nails.
We built the new mantel top from a 1×10 board framed on three sides with 1×2 pine strips so no raw edges would show, using the same approach we’d used for floating shelves. We also used leftover lattice strips from a previous project to raise the mantel slightly so it matched the old height and covered some unpainted paneling behind it. That allowed us to keep the mantel at the same familiar height while correcting the hearth and side proportions that had previously sloped into the wall.
After the mantel was in place, we added crown molding beneath it to give the mantel more presence. Because we wanted the crown to sit flush with the face of upcoming decorative boxes, we attached a 1×3 board to bump the molding out to the correct depth. This also provided a base for the top pieces of the 1×2 boxes we planned to add.
With the mantel and crown in place the surround still felt a bit too flat and modern for the rest of the room, which has more traditional cabinet shapes. To bring the fireplace into better stylistic alignment, we added baseboard and framed the surround with 1×2 trim to create simple decorative boxes.
We mounted scrap 1×2 boards behind the baseboard so it wouldn’t sit flush to the MDF, then installed vertical and horizontal 1×2 strips to form the box detailing. We added a decorative trim piece where the vertical “posts” support the center span to break up the long vertical panels and create more pleasing proportions.
The trim stage progressed quickly, and we even began caulking seams before pausing to check the overall fit. Remaining tasks include priming and painting, finishing the lower trim where the tile meets the cork floor, and adding quarter round along the baseboard to give the whole install a polished edge.
Even without paint yet, we’re very pleased with how the makeover is shaping up compared to where things started. Give us another day or two to complete the finishing touches and we’ll follow up with the finished fireplace, a complete budget breakdown, and lots of photos.