What can you do if your brick fireplace needs a new look?

Metal fireplace surrounds are a sure fire way to make your room look completely different. I made these for some dear friends who have a dinning room and living room fireplace on the same wall.

They had a pretty good idea of what they wanted when we started designing. One constraint was a 3/4″ radius all around. This is to match the custom concrete work that these metal surrounds will rest on. The construction is 1/8″ CRS plate. This material lends itself to clean, sharp looks. The formed radius on all the corners gives a uniformed, machined look to it. The only problem when doing this, is that the edge that returns to the wall is a welded edge, not formed like the rest. Getting this joint to match the others is the real challenge. My designer suggested cutting a section from a tube and welding iot into place for the radius. This worked well and took less time than I expected. For the two full radeus corners, I cut a metal ball into sections and fit it in to accept both radii. This is one of those jobs that “clean up” , meaning grinding, polishing and “hiding” the weld takes about 10x more time than the welding itself. The whole unit attaches to the wall via keyhole slots welded to the back edge of the structure. The second challenge of this job was the finish. I was given a picture frame from their home to match the color and finish. This is the topic of its own post later…..

Need to bring your Living room into the 21st century too?

scott@trueformdesign.com

707-535-0590