DIY Electric Fireplace Build



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I dreamed up this project a little under a year ago when we moved into our new space. This giant blank wall needed a statement piece and since our renters requested the pipe shelf entertainment center that Josh built stay with the old house, we didn’t have anything. Back then, there was really only one tutorial on how to do something like this, but dang it was a good one. Search for the “Whitney Hansen how to build a fireplace in one weekend” series on YouTube. But it’s a big project and a lot to think through. Over our nearly 7 years of marriage, I’ve learned that the more tutorials I send Josh, the more confident he is to start a project; but there really was only that one good tutorial for a long time. Thankfully for some reason, in the last few months, it seems like EVERYONE has been building out electric fireplaces, and I was able to send him three bloggers posts detailing their builds. Chris Loves Julia, Nesting with Grace, and The Blooming Nest. All three have excellent detailed posts about how to do this, so I’m not really going into a detailed “how to” here on this blog, just sharing our journey. Six months ago Josh took several of my chicken scratch drawings into sketch up, confirmed it was something we could pull off, and then we waited to save up for this project and finish a few others. But… then Jett learned how to (and learned that he LOVED to) turn the volume all the way down and the TV off several dozen times a day; because he realized he could reach the buttons and that sort of sped up our timeline. So, our thanksgiving break was spent with bit of time at Home Depot and a lot of time in the garage, but alas, it’s done. I love it even more than I thought I would.

In order to allow for a cable box (something we don’t plan on having, but doesn’t hurt to prepare for) or an XBOX1X (which the handy builder is getting for Christmas) we added an open box behind the tv that has power and cable run to it. It wouldn’t work well for something that you need access to frequently like a dvd player, but works great for what we have planned. Also, the baseboards were put back, I’m just impatient when it comes to taking pictures.

This is the fireplace that we ordered on Amazon, it’s really the expensive part of the whole project. The lumber, shiplap, lattice trim, and wood for the mantle is all from home depot. The whole project including the $600 fireplace came out to just around $1,000. It helped that we had all the tools we needed: Finish nail gun and air compressor, miter saw, table saw, etc.

xoxo,
Adora

Edit: Added pictures of the inset Box for commenter, Michael. Electrical is pigtailed off of an outlet below, hidden behind the fireplace structure the cable line is continued from below as well.

P.S. If you do end up building something like this, I would love to see it! Please tag me on Instagram: @adoramae

P.P.S. About 18 months later and this post is the most popular one on my blog by far and since we’re about to move out of this house, I wanted to post some updated photos. (Below) You can see it’s held up beautifully except for some paint touch up needed at the bottom where my kids are constantly scratching at and “vrooming” hot wheels cars across it. We added floating shelves on either side that are just 2×10 pine boards stained to match the mantel and farmhouse style brackets from Home Depot. A big comfortable chair on one side and ever affordable IKEA LÄTT kids table that we also stained and chalkboard painted to match. I’ve loved having this fireplace on everyday and I’ve LOVED seeing so many of the fireplaces y’all have built inspired by this one. Thank you for stopping by!

184 Responses to DIY Electric Fireplace Build

  1. Jill says:

    Where do you put all the electronics when the tv is on the wall? The sound bar? Things that need a direct visual connection between the remote and the receiver? I can’t figure that out. Thanks.

    • Adora Mae says:

      Jill, everything that we keep in the box behind the TV uses a RF (radio frequency) style remote so it doesn’t have to be visible for the remote to control it. If your electronics use an IR (infrared remote) – then you’d need to keep them visible to control the remote.

  2. Tuesday Douglas says:

    Hi, sorry if I’m overlooking this but I was curious as to the size of your tv and the overall width of the fireplace?

    Thank you

  3. Kam Waltz says:

    I love this!!! I also love the side chair! Do you remember where you got that by chance?

    • Adora Mae says:

      I got it from Wayfair, but I bought it in early 2016 and it’s not available at the same link anymore. It was a really reasonably priced chair and a half rocking chair that I had in our nursery. When we moved it into the living room, we took the rocking legs off and added tapered legs.

  4. Adora Mae says:

    43 1/4” from the ground to the bottom of the mantle that’s made with 1×6” pine.

    We’ve since moved and left the TV for my parents who moved in after us, so I can’t measure it, but I will say – it’s very high. TV height has never bothered me but my husband would comment that it was too high. But for that look and that season of life in a house filled with toddler boys yielding sticks and seemingly having something to prove – I was thankful it was so high up. Lol

    My classical retired parents who live there now have a reclining couch in that space so I’m sure that Angel helps with any eye strain.

    Hope that helps!

  5. Becca says:

    I love your rug! Any idea where u got it?

  6. Saws Hub says:

    Great project, got a fireplace already so I might find a monitor that displays an aquarium instead

  7. Sara says:

    Were you able to get the corner pieces from home Depot that you used at the end of the shiplap?

  8. Betty says:

    Could you tell me how height the mantle is from the floor. We can’t decide and we have 8 foot ceilings.

  9. Austin oliver says:

    How are you wall looks great, what size fireplace is that you guys used ?!

  10. Yure says:

    Hi Adora,

    Absolutely love this project!! We are starting our project tomorrow. What paint color is your wall? We are trying to coordinate the blackout shiplap color with the back wall.

    Thank you!

  11. Tim says:

    This is the best DIY of this project I’ve seen so far. Is your fireplace the kind that has vents in the top, and if so was there room in your design for some space? Also, what software did you all use for the sketches?

    • Adora Mae says:

      Thanks Tim! This fireplace has vents at the top of the glass (the glass tilts back at the top) and the heat blows down from there. It’s meant to be set in this way. I like it because it’s the least obvious electric fireplace on the market in my opinion.

      The software is Google sketchup.

  12. Jess says:

    How do you mount the tv to this? How does it not fall off without being in studs?

    • Adora Mae says:

      Jess, we placed the two vertical 2×4’s (on either side of the cable box cubie) where the tv mount bolts in for extra strength, but the shiplap itself is solid pine, so I would bet it could hold a TV & mount on its own just fine.

  13. Mike says:

    Love this and definitely inspired me to build something similar! It looks like your side frames are not sitting on the front of the ledger boards, and instead, sitting beside them? Did you use side joinery (like pocket holes) or just screws on an angle to attach it?

    On all the other tutorials I have seen, the side frames were always is screwed into the ledger board (from the front) and the ledger boards are screwed into the studs

    • Adora Mae says:

      Mike, that back 2×4 horizontally against the wall, while in studs, isn’t actually a ledger board, it’s serving more of a spacer purpose to keep everything square. But yes it also is connected to the vertical frames via angled screws. Our vertical side panels that are also against the wall are in studs, we built this whole thing to make sure we hit studs as often as possible. This whole thing isn’t floating, it’s resting on the ground, so that also provides strength to the build.

  14. Jillian says:

    Hi! I’m so glad I found your tutorial! I want to do this so badly but my husband is a gamer. Yours is the only tutorial I’ve found with a solution for consoles! Thank you! Do you have any recommendations for how to incorporate a sound bar?

  15. I’m sorry if I missed this .. But, I’ve been looking for a electric fireplace insert with hidden controls as well as with the stainless steel front. Can you please provide a link for yours. Thank you for taking the time. I’m getting ready to start my cut sheet!

    Fabulous Build!

  16. Ellesse says:

    Hello,
    Can you please tell me what kind of wood you used for your mantle

  17. Sherine says:

    Just wondering how you made the openings in the shiplap?
    I’m doing something similar want wanted to know how to make the cuts for the fireplace and electric outlets.

  18. Aaron says:

    Just curious how you mounted the mantle to the wall. I don’t see any 2×4 sticking out to screw them to.

  19. Somer says:

    What color stain did you use on the mantle?

    • Adora Mae says:

      Somer, I use a prestain wood conditioner. Then I wipe on classic gray by minwax, wipe it off right away, then do the same thing with american walnut by rustoleum. It’s a combination I came up with years ago based on what I had on hand and now it’s on woodworking projects all over our house.

  20. Scott says:

    Beautiful design – my compliments. This looks perfect for a 29-foot exterior wall that I have been struggling to figure out how to put in a 50″ electric fireplace with 60 inch TV locating in the center of the “room” in an open plan split between two “rooms”.

    Two Questions: What program did you use to layout the framing plan? What did you do with the electronics? (I have a Cable DVR, DVD, Roku, Xbox, and soundbar, are all items I need to manage common surround installs!)

    • Adora Mae says:

      We only had an Xbox so that’s what the little compartment behind the TV is, but since you’re building from scratch, you could always just make multiple openings behind the TV or even run cables behind the shiplap to built in cabinets on the side. Whatever meets your needs! The program is called Sketchup and I’ve linked to the specific file in other comments here. It might give you a jumping off point.

      Can’t wait to see what you build!

  21. Makenna says:

    Ahhh I know this is an older blog but we are starting our fireplace next week and would love to know what size shiplap you used and color of paint! I’m not sure where all this links are.. I’m only able to see the fireplace insert link. Please let me know!

    • Adora Mae says:

      Makenna, the paint is blackout by BEHR in flat/matte. The shiplap is the pre-primed 5-1/4” pine shiplap that my local Home Depot always has in stock. I hope you enjoy the build! Please tag me on Instagram if you post! Would love to see it!

  22. Sara says:

    Love this! How high is your mantle from the ground?

  23. Steph Jirik says:

    I was so inspired by your fireplace and I couldn’t find anyone to help me so I decided to do it myself.
    I used a piece of black walnut from a tree in my parents yard and made it into a bench under the fireplace and I took a beam from our old barn for the mantel.
    I didn’t want to see the tv so I covered it with a picture and put hinges on it to open and close.
    Thank you for such great instructions!

  24. JohnR says:

    Amazing! How did you attach the frame to the wall? Did you attach the TV mount over the shiplap? I apologize if I missed these answers.

    • Adora Mae says:

      We used long screws that went through the shiplap into the 2×4 frame we built for the fireplace. The shiplap we used is pine though, so I’m sure it would be sturdy enough to hold a TV, but we tend to be overly cautious.

      • Shelly says:

        I’m currently researching how to do this in my house and I have LOVED your blog. You’ve answered so many questions so I’m sorry to bug you again, but I’m not seeing the answer I came for. I know there’s supposed to be space for the air and hear to vent from the fireplace. How did you plan for the airflow? Are there any fire or safety concerns? Thank you I’m advance for your time!

  25. Kevin says:

    How did you mount the mantle to the shiplap ?

  26. Eric says:

    How tall are your ceilings for this project… Im looking to do something similar but have 8ft ceilings and not sure how it would look.

    Thanks!

  27. Marissa says:

    Hello again! We are starting our fireplace this week. I had just a couple more questions. Can you give me the the measurements from the floor to the bottom of the fireplace? From the floor to the top of the mantle? From the floor to the hidden black box? And from the floor to the tv mount? Thank you ahead of time! I’m super excited for this project can’t wait to share with you the end result!

  28. Adora Mae says:

    Lucy, thanks for doing that. I’m sorry I haven’t gotten to your comment. I’ll get those measurements when I can. I will say generally speaking that the TV is mounted high and we talked about being worried it was too high. It took like a week to get used to. Our TV Mount tilted the tv down slightly so that part helped.

  29. Rebecca Johnson says:

    Hello. My name is Rebecca. I saw this on Pinterest and am having a guy build it for me. I don’t have access to your link. I see that your TV is 60″ and your fireplace is 50″. I was wanting to know size of ship lap and overall size and measurements between fireplace and TV. Also is your TV Plasma?

  30. OKel says:

    Do you happen to have the sketch up file still for this ?

  31. Robin says:

    Did your specific fireplace come with the stainless surround, or did you do that yourself for safety reasons?

  32. Esme says:

    Hi there! Love this project! Looking at the sketch up it’s hard to tell how many I inches from the ground the bottom of the fireplace actually is. Are you able to confirm how many inches it is?

  33. Latonya Carter says:

    Hi sheila I just read this post, would you mind sharing your final result :// Im, in need of motivation to attempt it and I would love this so much

  34. Igor says:

    Hello Adora, love the fireplace!
    Is it possible to post the sketchup file so I can play with dimensions please?

    Thanks!
    -igor

  35. Marissa says:

    Hello Adora Mae-

    I love this fireplace! and cannot wait to build it in my home. I was not able to download the sketch up for the dimension of frame, and cable box is there another way to get the details on this?

    • Adora Mae says:

      The width of the whole fireplace is a bit over 6 feet. There are some dimensions listed on an image above. For the cable box we just built to the size we needed (we use an Xbox in there since we don’t have cable) . I recommend measuring your current cable box and making sure your little cubby is large enough to meet your needs. That’s the best part of DIY, you can build it to your exact needs! I hope that helps. ❤️

      • Marissa says:

        I can vaguely see most of the measurements. The measure from the floor to the bottom on the fireplace what is that measurement? What is the measurements from the floor to the mantle? Sorry for all the questions thank you also for all the details it’s very appreciated

    • Adora Mae says:

      Marissa, the sketchup images with detailed measurements are now linked to higher res versions of the image. I hope that helps!

  36. Sheila says:

    This is lovely! Is there any way to get a clearer picture of the measurements?

  37. Crestal says:

    Where did you hide your cable box?

  38. Tazneem says:

    Hi,
    Great project, thanks so much for sharing! Also, really love that rug! Do you happen to know the name of it?

  39. jessica bullwinkle says:

    What software did you use to draw the plans above? We are doing something similar (pretty much exactly) to yours but a little bigger so I want to layout the plans with the new dimensions.

  40. sylvia says:

    What a great looking piece! Love your idea

  41. Brie W says:

    Hello I see you put the link in to which shiplap you used from Home Depot. I am serious how many boards were bought/used? Also did you have to do two coats of paint or just one? How far out did you come on the sides?

  42. Jessica Sidwell says:

    Do you have a link for the ship lap you used?

  43. Alex says:

    Just wondering how you hung your TV? The TV mount bracket would have to be screwed either into studs or into the piece of wood that is screwed into the studs and the bracket arms would have to stick out past the faux wall. I don’t really see that with the cable box there.

    • Adora Mae says:

      Hey Alex, so the TV mount does stick out/off of the faux wall/fireplace. It goes into studs because we bought the TV mount first and designed our 2×4 framing so we knew we would be able to attach the TV mount into studs. The tv mount sits above a foot above the cable box opening/cubbie. You can’t access the cable box opening/cubbie without taking the TV off the TV mount. The TV sticks out, off the faux/fireplace wall by 2-3 inches. I hope that helps clarify. Thanks!

    • Adora Mae says:

      Oh also, the TV mount we have only has up and down tilt, so it doesn’t have bulky arms that let you pull the TV away from the wall so that keeps the TV a bit closer to the wall, but it does still stick out a bit.

  44. Kaleigh says:

    What did you use to make the cable box?

  45. Adrian says:

    Did you use liquid nails or a nail gun when installing the shiplap?

  46. Rayma says:

    Beautiful!! I have one question: what kind of black paint did you use for the shiplap? Thanks!

  47. Azo says:

    This is beautiful!!! Just one question. Is the heater vent inside the wall? Can it still be used if it’s in the wall and not exposed? I just built mine and I’m scared to use the heater setting since it’s mounted inside. Thanks in advance:)

    • Adora Mae says:

      Thanks Azo! This unit is designed to be inserted in a wall the way it is, you should definitely only install electric fireplaces the way they instruct. There’s basically two kinds of electric fireplaces; wall mount and insert. This one blows heat down out of the top where the glass ends. If you have the right type installed, don’t be afraid! Just don’t leave it on unattended. Enjoy your fireplace!

  48. Vicki Swenson says:

    What is lattice trim? Is that what you used on the corners? Where did you purchase it or did you make it? Your fireplace is beautiful, it’s exactly what we are doing for ours. Thank you for sharing your talents!

    • Adora Mae says:

      Vicki, lattice is what you sometimes see covering the big open areas below decks, it comes in big woven 4×8 panels and the thin pieces of wood form little diamonds or squares. Lattice trim (also called lattice moulding) is simply those thin slices of pine wood sold on their own. Home Depot has them, usually near the other kinds of trim work. Sometimes they’ll have it made of pvc rather than pine, but ours is pine. It’s very inexpensive, less than $1 per linear foot. It’s much thinner than any other piece of finished wood you can buy and yes, it’s what we used to trim out our fireplace. If you can go into Home Depot (after the pandemic is over of course) and ask someone, they should know what lattice trim is, also their website should tell you if they have it in stock or not.

  49. Teresa Brigham says:

    Awesome!! And I especially love that you respond so quickly to readers’ comments. So helpful for those of us looking to others and their DIY projects. Thank you!

  50. Jenna H says:

    How much did this project cost?

  51. Whitney says:

    Hi Adora,
    Was just wondering if you ran a dedicated electrical circuit to your fireplace when building this or if you just used an existing outlet you already had? If you used an existing outlet, do you have any issues with the breaker tripping? Thanks!

  52. Angelina says:

    How big is the TV that you hung?

  53. Julia Dominguez says:

    So we are looking to have a fire place built. My question is there a way to get to the cable cords etc at the bottom of the wall if you ever need to? Like a little door?

    • Adora Mae says:

      Julia, the outlet at the bottom only has the fireplace plugged into it, everything else is in the higher outlet. To get to our lower outlet, we’d have to remove the fireplace but you could easily add a little removable fake plank on the side to access that outlet if you’re handy!

  54. Sara Pence says:

    we just did something similar and love it! just have to add the mantle. what color stain did you use on the mantle?

    • Adora Mae says:

      Sara, I use a prestain wood conditioner. Then I wipe on classic gray by minwax, wipe it off right away, then do the same thing with american walnut by rustoleum. It’s a combination I came up with years ago based on what I had on hand and now it’s on wood all over our house.

  55. Duriel says:

    Excellent DIY, the paint on the shiplap is super catchy!!!

    Did you use a brush or roller?

  56. Andrew Taylor says:

    How did you guys mount your fireplace or did you just slide it in through the insert?? You guys did a great job!

    • Adora Mae says:

      Andrew, Thanks! The stainless rectangle surround mounts after the rest of the of the fireplace so it allows for you to secure the unit to the front of the opening. The directions on the amazon link for the fireplace make more sense than the way I’m describing. lol

  57. Shawn says:

    Is that shiplap wood you guys used to finish with? What kind of trim? Love it

  58. Elise says:

    Do you know, if you put a cable box into the open box, would the remote still work even if the tv is behind the cable box? I’m wondering if the signal will be ok !

    • Adora Mae says:

      Elise, it depends. If your cable box uses an IR (infrared) remote then it wouldn’t work because it needs basically a direct line of sight to work. Our XBOX that we keep in there uses a RF (radio frequency) style remote so it doesn’t have to be visible for the remote to control it.

  59. Michael says:

    Can you show a picture of the open box behind the TV for the cable box and other electrical stuff? Please.

  60. Julia says:

    Question how did you mount your TV? Did you put the wall mount back up? Was it secure enough since it’s not directly on the wall in studs?

    I love it!

    • Adora Mae says:

      When we were building the 2×4 frame we made sure there would be studs behind where the TV mount screws would sit so they are actually in studs. We bought the tv mount first and framed the 2×4’s accordingly.

      • Heidi says:

        So is the mount on the wall or on the fireplace? I love this, and I am planning on doing something similar. Do you have pictures of the tv mount? Thanks so much!

        • Adora Mae says:

          Heidi, the TV mount is on the fireplace, we made sure the framing behind the shiplap was set up so we would hit studs with our tv mount. It was just one we bought that day at Best Buy, I don’t have any photos of just it, but any would work, as long as you make sure it’s in studs; though I think the wood shiplap is probably strong enough to act like a stud on its own.

  61. Bailee says:

    My husband and I are in love with this! Question though, how did you mount your floating shelf?? Also what color black is this 😍

  62. Lori says:

    How do you like the fireplace? Does it put out heat? Do you use the Bluetooth function? If so, in what way?

    • Adora Mae says:

      Lori, we love the fireplace. Aesthetically it’s been a wonderful addition to our living room. We keep it on almost all day – but only the lights, not the heat. Between it being at toddler height and Texas being so hot, we’ve only used the heat one or two times so I can’t really comment on it. The amazon listing of it has more reviews on the heat. I don’t use the Bluetooth, we have an amazon Alexa in the living room that has a much better speaker. The fact that it makes a bluetooth ready sound every time you turn on the fireplace is one of my least favorite things about it. If you’re not looking for amazing sound quality, and just want to hear some music, the fireplace gets the job done for sure.

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