A DIY faux fireplace, some progress in the winging out section and living on the edge. Haha, that’s me making the topic of the blog super clear in case you want to see Netflix instead. But in case you are interested in these kinda things, replete with the soppiness of it all, hang in here with me with your coffee or wine, at whichever hour you are reading this.

Seriously though, sometimes I stare at myself in the mirror and wonder where is all this b***s coming from? When I got diagnosed with anxiety last year, as a part of my coping-training, I was to face fear. I was to put myself out there and wing all I can- and by that, I meant scuba diving. When did I step in, in this whole entrepreneurial shoes? Anyway, let’s keep this aside because I’ll have to go on and on and sometimes I find it extremely boring, myself because let’s face it- each one of us is winging it someway or the other. I am also laughing out really hard right now thinking how quickly I can bypass thoughts & things now. When I was young, I’d particularly take pride in brooding and brood till the inner-tragic-romantic-self would be satisfied. Now, however, I brood on better things. For example? How to get yourself a DIY faux fireplace in a home that already has dedicated areas without an inch to spare!

Now, having mulled over this for years, I finally figured out that if I somehow compartmentalized the idea of a fireplace, a mantel and a TV into our entertainment area, I could probably have a little fireplace-ish thing. You know, more like a niche built in a cupboard that mimics the idea of a fireplace? Where I can add flowers for spring, a sprig of dried leaf for autumn and a bunch of wooden logs or an electrical fire in our non-existential winter. So we got around to build this thing!

However, there were 3 crucial points we had to corner.

  1. Our TV table earlier was a vintage cupboard on top of which I had placed a Woodentop. That cupboard held our recording instruments. So that storage had to be incorporated
  2. The length and breadth of it all couldn’t exceed that of its predecessor because of tiny house problems
  3. It can’t cost me a bomb.

Here’re the initial phases:

We started off with wooden ply 1″ thick.

For the backing, we used a 33″ ply and for the front, we divided the length into 3 parts- 9.5 + 14 + 9.5 inch. 9.5 inch are to be the sides and the cupboards and 14″ is to be the niche. Or the DIY faux fireplace as I like to call.

The depth of the table is 18″ and we used a 4″ drop in the front to give it a fireplace-ish look. However, we kept the storage to the top. Here’s how it looks after fitting the door.

We also kept 2″ gap below each cabinet so there’s no accumulation of dirt. The open edges we covered with 1″ half round wooden beading. c

Next, we painted it with 2 coats of Asian Paints Royale, Water-Based Paint. The shade is BR white. Oh, I skipped priming. Because I am sometimes a very shoddy, lazy person and I don’t give two hoots about the painting Nazis.

The niche however, we painted black so it mimics a fireplace clad in soot and also makes the lights twinkle brighter around the wooden logs. I used matte black Royale from Asian Paints.

Your faux fireplace + Tv station is now ready for you to dream on! Love a bunch of flowers and a few lemons in here as a part of our summer decor. And the entire set up cost us 3500 excluding paint. Not bad if you ask me!

Been a while I visited this place I so call my refuge. So good to be writing 700 words again, apologizing for the extra 200 words every time that always writes itself. I have no idea how.

Off for a small vacay and I’ll see you guys here!

Love

Rukmini

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *