Picture this: you’re snuggling in front of the fire on a cozy winter evening, counting down the minutes until Christmas morning. The next day, you wake up to the sound of your fireplace crackling and see all the presents placed under the tree. Sounds amazing right?
Fireplaces conjure up so many warm memories that even those without a fireplace often create the look with mantels mounted to the wall and candles placed on the floor below.
I had a perfectly presentable fireplace but it was nothing special and did not create the warm focal point that I dreamed of.
When thinking about what my dream fireplace entailed, I knew that stacked stone, shiplap wall treatments, and reclaimed wood would have to be part of the design. However, putting all of those items together in a cohesive and inviting way was going to be the challenge.
To start off the project, I had stacked stone installed to the bottom area of the fireplace. Once that element was finished, that’s when the ideas really took off.
A friend on Facebook mentioned that she had found a great resource for reclaimed wood. I was so excited that I jumped in my car and sped off to a woodworking shop called Rustic Heritage. There I found the absolute perfect rustic mantel.
Placing the large rectangular beam above the stone gave the fireplace the weight and presence that I was looking for but the space still did not look complete. It was time for the next phase of the project: shiplap.
While placing the boards in the traditional horizontal pattern looked nice, it didn’t add the umph that I was after. It wasn’t until I changed the direction of the boards to a herringbone pattern that look finally came together – this change gave the whole design a unique spin on this age old classic. Once installed, the fireplace finally looked complete and was the unique focal point I had always dreamed of.