Have you ever wanted a mantel to put in your living room, but just couldn't afford it? Or just for the month of december? Or a photo prop for you to take some fun photos with the family? We have created this magical fireplace! Living in Florida, specifically Miami, homes don't come with fireplaces. Using a little imagination, a few old boxes, paint, foam, and time, we got ourselves a magical fireplace! Sorry about the blurry photos, the camera got damaged. We will update with new ones soon.
Materials needed for this fun DIY:
1.- New 55" or bigger TV Box
2.- Half a box (half the size of your TV box)
3.- Foam (We will use some of the remnants from the TV box, and new ones)
a.- 1 - 57" long
b.- 2 - 36" long
c.- 2 - 40" long
4.- All purpose compound
5.- Wooden flat ornament
6.- White Behr Paint
7.- Black Behr Paint
8.- Ruler/metric tape
9.- Pencil
10.- X-acto Knife
11.- Hot Glue Gun
The first thing you need to do is find the half way point of the box. This is going to guide you as to the middle opening of the fireplace, and the size of the smaller box for the opening in the middle. We used a 55" TV box.
We used a smaller size half a box to guide us for the center opening. This is going to go in the interior, and you are going to use this to cut the exact size.
We measured the center, and using our x-acto knife cut the center hole.
Once the center is cut, you are going to place the half a box inside the big box facing out, glue it to the bottom, and the extra cardboard from the TV box cut it out.
It should look like this:
The new foam pieces that we are going to use to decorate the fireplace with and the snowflake embellishment (you can pick other embellishments).
DO NOT USE THE HOT GLUE WITH THE FOAM IT WILL MELT!!!
Using the two slim long pieces, one on each side, use the drywall compound and adhered it to the cardboard box.
Using the smaller foam; cut two squares of the same size (these will go on the corners), then smaller same size 19 pieces (or however many fit between the two corner squares. Using the drywall compound, stick them to the cardboard, and let it dry.
Using two long pieces of foam and two smaller squares surround the entrance to the main middle fireplace hole, and adhere it to the cardboard using the drywall compound.
Using one of the really long pieces of foam, adhere it to the top of the fireplace.
The bottom will also use one of the long foam pieces, adhere it to the fireplace bottom part.
Using home wall paints white and black, paint the fireplace once it is completely dry.
Voila! Santa now has a place to come and drop off stocking gifts. It is light enough that you can move it to the garage or other places if need be.
We hope you enjoyed this DIY, and don't forget to Recycle, Reuse, and Have fun!
XOXO
Andy
