First of all, I have to say THANK YOU for all of the love on this project! Nathan and I were completely blown away with the response on Tuesday when I shared the before and after on Instagram - completely blown away!
If you're just catching up - check out this blog post, or this one, for a little back story on how we built these. If you've been following along with the project, then you know I asked for any and all questions regarding this project, and you delivered! I answering the most common questions today in this post... but before we get to that, let's take another look at that before and after - because I am still staring at this wall in awe every night when I sit on the couch!
If you have any other questions that I haven't answered - feel free to leave them in the comments below and I'll be happy to answer them!
Q: "How did you install the actual fireplace? Does it plug in or produce heat?"
A: This is the fireplace unit we used. It's an electric unit meaning it simply plugs into the wall; into a regular outlet. The unit we chose does give off heat - it's not enough heat where the unit becomes hot to the touch, but we've found that it heats up our Family Room area quite nicely! In order to install it, Nathan had to move one of the outlets that was existing on that wall, closer to the fireplace so that it could be hidden in the fireplace bump out. Other than that, it was simply plugging in the unit and placing it in the hole we framed for it.
Q: "Do you have a chimney or what kid of ventilation did you choose?"
A: Since the fireplace is an electric unit, it requires no ventilation! This wall is an interior wall in our home and we do not have a chimney or any type of ventilation on that wall. Simply plugs in and produces heat for you!
Q: "Where did you get the brackets? Could you use a 2" piece of wood and drill holes instead?"
A: We bought the brackets on Amazon - these are the brackets we used. Yes, you could use a 2" thick piece of wood and drill holes into the back of it and slide the brackets in that way. Actually, that is the recommended way to use the brackets... we decided to make the shelves hollow so that we could install the puck lighting inside the shelf and conceal the puck lights. More on that in the next question!
Q: "How did you put the puck lights in the shelves?"
A: In order to place the puck light inside of the shelf, the shelf needed to be hollow. I go into more detail on how Nathan made the hollow shelves in my last blog post (here). As for putting the puck lights inside of them, Nathan used a 3 1/2" hole saw to cut into the bottom of the shelf. We noticed the shelf was a little too deep and the puck light was sitting too far inside the shelf. So, Nathan used a piece of a paint stick (I know genius haha!), drilled that inside the hole and it elevated the puck light perfectly. Lastly, we hot glued the puck light onto that paint stick piece and Ta-Da! These are the puck lights we used - they are remote controlled and you can easily twist them to remove and change the batteries.
Q: "What did you have to hire someone to do that you couldn't do yourself?"
A: The only thing that we (aka Nathan) didn't do himself was tiling the fireplace. We hired someone to come and install that for us. I briefly talked about this in my last blog post and while I fully encourage people to learn new things and try to do as much as possible on your own, I also encourage people to hire a professional for things that you're not comfortable with doing or that should clearly be handled by a professional.
Q: "How hard was it to keep the tile in place while it was dry on the wall?"
A: Since we had someone else install the tile for us, I can't really speak too much into this. I will say that the tile contractor required us to attach a 2 x 4 to the inside of the fireplace opening (the top edge of the opening)... so that the tile that sits right above the fireplace would have support while drying (see photo below). Other than that, the mortar used is enough to hold it in place while it dries. It dried for 24 hours and then the tile contractor came back and grouted the tile.
Q: "Dimensions, grout color used, how many square feet of tile purchase vs actually used"
A: I will dive more into the dimensions/plans of the wall when I reveal the budget and cost of the project. I may even include a free download that shows the dimensions of everything!
+ The tile is a matte black tile and the size is 12 x 24
+ Grout color is Raven - we used a grout called Power Grout which is a mold/mildew resistant
grout. I highly recommend it for flooring applications; especially in high traffic areas!
+ I sketched out how I wanted the tile to be laid out and counted how many piece of tile we
would need. We needed roughly 40 pieces... so, I ordered 60 pieces of tile to account for waste
and so that the tile contractor could select the best pieces. It's always best to have more or
extra tile... trust me, you're tile contractor will thank you!! 60 pieces of tile equaled 116 sf
Q: "Did you change anything from the original design?"
A: The only thing we ended up changing from the original design that I came up with, was the number of shelves. Originally we planned for three shelves on each side of the fireplace, with cabinets below, but when we measured them out and taped off the heights... three felt like too much and the top shelf would have been too high. So, we eliminated the top shelf and added those swing arm sconces instead!
Q: "What color are the cabinets?"
A: We did not paint the cabinets, we purchased cabinets from Home Depot. These are the cabinets we purchased (here). The wine racks are from Ikea - each side of the fireplace has two wine racks that are stacked on top of each other. We matched the stain for the shelves and butcher block to the color of the wine racks. The stain color that we used was Provincial - we bought it at Home Depot (here).
I hope I answered all your questions, and if you asked a question regarding budget, stay tuned as I will be sharing a budget breakdown on the blog later this week!
As always, thank you for following along - chat soon!