Fireplace Update

The main structure is up, but it hasn't been trimmed out yet. Be kind . . . it's still a work in progress!

 We wanted something a bit rustic, but not too rustic and it had to be BIG to stand up to the wardrobe beside it.
We decided on 1" by 6" Wood boards, They were inexpensive, and smooth, but just rough enough to give a little rustic feel. We're painting them the same color as the wardrobe beside it, a fresh warm white. So rustic but not too rustic.
I briefly considered using chipped an peeling barn board. But One it would have been too rustic and two, you never have any idea what kind of paint they used.

On Monday I declared that we would try and keep it in the $150 range. We just blew past it and are sitting at $160 with about $20 more material to buy, so hopefully we'll keep it under the $200 mark.
One question that kept popping up was "How can you install a fireplace for $150, when the unit would cost at least that?" Our answer is always "CRAIGSLIST" we found this unit for $40!!!! It's a very expensive electric unit with an insanely realistic flame (it's actually looks as real as our gas fireplace in our living room). It was originally in a house as a corner unit, but because we had so much depth beside our wardrobe we could use it as a regular unit, and the reason it was $40 was because the fan was broken, so it heated up but didn't get blown around. It took Lee less then 30 minutes to fix and we were in business . . . Hot Business!

We added a small trim detail at the bottom, it was one of those things. We needed to hide a small gap between the fireplace and the boards, but didn't want to go to the trouble of cutting down a large board, so we found this 1" by 1" trim and it fit perfectly, popping out just the right amount.

We still have to add trim, (which I can't wait for, Lee mocked it up yesterday and it made a HUGE difference):

 Prime the wood, we're using Kilz "Extremely Low VOC" Primer! We couldn't have come across this product at a better time. Because we're priming and painting in the bedroom, I wanted to make sure there were no VOC's or Terrible odors! Who wants to breathe that in all night. Honestly Kilz primer had very little smell, and it only took one coat to seal the wood!

Paint, we hoping to match the wardrobe color exactly.
And lastly remove the two brass handles on the screen. They are strictly decorative, and definitely unnecessary in all their shinny brass-ness (that's a word!). 

We'll be trimming and painting all weekend and HOPEFULLY we'll have a reveal post and a How to post ready for MONDAY!!!