Week 6 Progress + the Fireplace Insert
Can you believe it’s Week 6 of the One Room Challenge?!? We’re coming up on a deadline that I’m not even close to hitting. This week started off with a sprained ankle and some very slow progress. But, it finished with the completion of the DIY Fireplace Insert + a glass of wine, so I’m calling it a win!
The Chevron Fireplace
We left off last week with me jumping off of the step stool, after installing the last nail, in the last piece of shiplap on the chevron fireplace I built. This week was all about getting all of the shiplap painted, plus cutting and painting all of the trim pieces.
I used a small roller, and it made the process pretty quick and easy. Since the shiplap is not completely flat, the small roller was more effective than a regular sized on would have been for rolling the entire thing.
The Top Trim Trick
How do you install trim that’s more than 7 feet in the air–by yourself? Like this!
The side pieces are easier to cut first, so I decided to cut them and get them installed prior to do the long middle piece. To measure them properly, you need a small piece that will butt up against the side piece, to square off the corner. The spot where they meet is going to be the short angle of your 45º cut.
Once you cut the angle, you’ll want to have a small angled piece–again–to align the side piece for square installation. Only use 1-2 finishing nails when you first install the side piece, since you might need a little wiggle room when installing the middle piece. After installing both side pieces of trim, you can measure the short and long angles of the middle section.
In this instance, the universe was throwing me a bone–it worked the FIRST time! You can visit my Instagram story highlights for my reaction, but it involved some, “DUUUUUDE…it’s PERFECT” and “I can’t even believe…”
Anyway, try this method the next time you need to do a mitered join–let me know if it works for you as well as it did for me!
The Side Trim
Ohhhh, the corners. This has definitely been one of the mistakes of this fireplace build. I measured and installed the shiplap just to the edges of the 2×4 frame, which left a square gap. It’s weird to cover it. In the end, I used 1×3 boards to trim the front edges and 1×2 boards attached along the sides. It works, but because the shiplap is not smooth, a clean installation of a straight board was not necessarily easy to do.
And…the DIY Fireplace Insert!
This couldn’t have gone better if I had tried. So much of the time, any “quick” DIY project turns into and endless, time-consuming mix up. But, installing this fireplace insert was simple. One thing that made it easier was turning the cord-side support wood sideways, featuring a more shallow way to insert that side first.
I inserted it, checked level, drilled the pilot holes and installed all six screws. Then, the top frame slips right on. We already had an outlet on this wall, so it was easy to add this right in place.
Check out how far this space has come!
Week 7: The Blue Metallic Entertainment Center DIY
