The Library: Part 2 The Fireplace

Going in to this renovation, I thought that relocating our wood stove and chimney to the opposite end of the room would be complicated and difficult.  And, it was.  But it was a piece of cake compared to building this little faux fireplace for the library.

Since the fireplace in the library took so much work on its own, I thought I'd devote an entire post to it.  I don't know why we decided to give up more floor space that could have been used for other things; I can only say that having a gloomy Victorian style library with a fireplace and a grandfather clock seemed way more intriguing than extra space on the floor.  So, using the help of my favorite DIY blogger, athomewithashley, we followed her instructions, making a few tweaks of our own along the way to create this fireplace for an electric heater.

These corbel pieces are by Ekena Millwork and made of high density urethane.  We weren't sure of they would stain well or would have to be painted, so we just jumped in and tested one and as it turns out, they take furniture stain very well and look no different than the wood pieces we stained.

The tile pieces were purchased pretty early on and as so often happens, my vision for the project changed over time.  Since I had already bought them, I decided to just use what we had even though they no longer matched what I had in mind.  I had to remind myself that so many of my favorite Victorian homes definitely don't "match" and that is part of what makes them so interesting.  Stay tuned for my next library post to see our progress.