We live in a beautiful part of Northern California and before we purchased our home, we had a very specific list of “musts” that the house needed to have in order for us to purchase it. Our home had checked off the majority, if not all the items but we also knew that it’s going to need a lot of work to make it our own. It was previously owned by its builder and he did an excellent job structurally but the age gap created us a list of to-dos just because of our differences in style and functional needs.

This list includes a variety of projects that vary in difficulty but the one thing Devin and I had agreed on is that we would rather wait for things to be done properly and in the right order over falling into the trap of doing randoms here and there and ending up being a living oxymoron. If you’ve read my past blogs, you know one of the main things I preach about is not rushing into purchasing because you “need” them and instead take the time to plan out your space to achieve the maximum level of cohesiveness and beauty in your home while avoiding doing things twice.

So we split this list into two: projects/purchases we can do without planning and the ones that do. One of the main ones that do need planning is the living room accent wall which will include a fireplace build out and two cute nooks hugging it on each side. Even though we live in an area where 99.9% of the homes have a wood-burning fireplace, we ended up with the .01% that had central heating (no AC mind you 😒, give me a break Scott). So we bought an electric fireplace but held out on the build out because there is a list of projects that need to get done before it in that order:

• Remove flooring

• Fix kitchen cabinets, sink & extend island [we have an open concept layout]

• Install new flooring

That one in the middle is the most extensive and the most expensive.. so we have to wait. But with this wait comes a hanging fireplace in the middle of a wall with a bunch of wires visibly reminding me of my patience.

Something had to give so we got the idea of framing that fireplace after we created some floating shelves and installed them to take a few photos. We thought about creating something that would just box the fireplace in its place matching the shelves’ color and texture and giving me that rustic but modern vibe I am working on creating throughout the home and this is how it turned out!

We’re absolutely in love with it and it was a fairly simple project that any of you DIYers can implement on your own. The best part is you can really use it for anything, whether you want to add a fireplace to a room as an added bonus or a build out ledge or box a fish tank.. you name it, it can be rustic-ly boxed.

SO TO MAKE IT ON YOUR OWN, YOU’LL NEED THE FOLLOWING MATERIALS:

• Common boards

• We used 1x10 and 1x6

• 3m 220 grit sand discs 5”

• Varathane dark Walnut stain, oil-based

• Varathane Polyurethane satin finish

• Tightbond wood glue

• Dremel wire brush disc

• Dremel thin cut off disc to create cracks and rough corners/edges

• Any random nails used to age the wood

• Nail gun and Brad nails

• Miter Saw

• L-shaped brackets

THE PROCESS:

1. Measure your space and cut the wood to size

This part is pretty self-explanatory. If you don’t have a saw or can’t rent one, you can get your wood cut at your local Home Depot or hardware store. Just make sure those measurements are 100% accurate otherwise that’s a lot of driving for you 🥴.

2. Sand the wood

This is the part that everyone hates and I oddly love. Yes, sanding is boring but it’s definitely needed if you want to do things right and ESPECIALLY if you’re going to stain wood, otherwise the stain will just sit on the surface and you won’t get the actual color you’re probably hoping for. Now the more you sand, the more the stain will soak into the wood BUT the finer paper you use the more it actually does a bit of the opposite so it is a balance. If this confused you a bit, let me explain. Sandpaper has different grit sizes, the lowest being 40-60 and that’s very coarse and the highest being 1000-1200 (very hard to find and not for your normal wood-working projects). Most projects play between 80-220. The coarse sandpaper opens up the pores of the wood, so the rougher the surface the more absorbent it is but if you go past 220, let’s say the 300-400 range, that actually ends up creating very very small pores that don’t allow stain to seep in too far. This is meant for projects that want to keep the natural wood look, like charcuterie boards & food trays.

So in this project, we just used 220 on the common board which gives it a nice smooth finish but still allows the wood to absorb the stain we’re about to put on.

3. Age

This is the fun part of this project where you just get to go nuts on a piece of wood. Aging wood doesn’t have a solid definition because it just depends on the look you want. We hammered full nails, used the Dremel bits to create divots, some people will use pen tips or knives to etch marks into the surface. Whatever you have laying around can be used to rough up the surface. Keep in mind, only do this if you want a rustic, older look to the wood vs. the super smooth, clean edge which also works great.

4. Stain the wood

After you’ve aged the wood for the first time, you’re going to put on your first stain application. The idea is that the stain ends up being darker in the areas that you’ve “beat up” giving you a visible texture to the board. Depending on the stain you are applying, wait out its drying time. If you’re using the classic Varathane, it needs two hours for it to fully soak in, if you’re using the premium it only needs one hour and some water-based stains dry even faster than that.

5. Age again

Once your stain is dry, you’re going to get a better idea of how your aging is going to look. Chances are you’ll need to do a bit more because it adds more layers. The first round should be your deepest and this round should be your lighter touches.

6. Stain again (and seal if you want a bit of shine)

Just do it.

7. Put it together and install in its final location

Use wood glue as you’re assembling your box to help you prior to nailing anything. The wood glue is very strong and it will actually hold everything together fairly well so if you need to make any adjustments, do them quickly before the glue dries. You might also feel that you don’t need to nail anything and that the wood glue is enough, but don’t be fooled! Definitely nail or screw your box together to ensure that nothing falls apart on you while installing but also overtime because chances are you’ll be putting items on top of this box. We chose to nail the box together vs. using screws because I wanted that seamless look. If you choose to screw it instead, there are definitely tons of ways you can hide the screws, I’d YouTube it.

Now for installation, we removed the baseboard where the box will be installed so it sits flush with the wall. We insatlled the electric fireplace first, then mounted the box by using small metal brackets from the box to the wall to ensure it doesn’t fall on its face and lastly we put the fireplace glass on and voilà!

Alternatively, if you don’t want to do this yourself, you can just call us 😉