The Fireplace

I haven't had a chance to do much prior to today, so I thought I would save it up and include it all in one post.

As I wanted a deep recess for the fireplace, I set about contructing a false wall. I used tacky glue to fix all the supports in place -

After I glued it all I decided that actually I wanted the walls to be flush with the fireplace (why do I always think of things afterwards!). So I glued further supports, and measured and cut some leftover mdf to make the walls either side of the fireplace.

Next up was making the fireplace surround. My woodworking skill really aren't that good yet, plus I don't have the right tools to do precision cutting so I cut the surround from thick cardboard.
I'm really pleased with how well it turned out. I've decided that the back of the fireplace should be brick and as I have no brick moulds or anything similar, I've improvised!
I've cut another large piece of cardboard which will fit on the back wall of the fireplace (you might just be able to see it in the photo above). This means that I can put bricks on this card and glue it into place rather than trying to fit them straight on the back wall. I painted this card a creamy colour (it's still unpainted in the photo below) and then painted some sandpaper a reddish brick colour -

Once dried I cut out thin strips and then cut them into brick shapes and voila....

(It's a good thing tudor bricks were different sizes!) I still need to finish it and then do the same for the inner left and right sides of the fireplace. Once I've done that I will glue it into place.

While I was waiting for the paint on the sandpaper to dry I whizzed over to Casey's Minis and got some fabulous inspiration from her egg box tutorial for the fireplace surround -

Once again it still needs to be finished, I will try painting it a darker stone grey colour I think.
This is the final picture of it all together so far.

I will be putting anothe piece of mdf aboce the fireplace so it looks like one long wall. That's it for today, I'll hopefully be able to finish the bricks later so I'll post more pictures once it's done.