Fireplace

On our way home from Jackson, Carleen wanted to pick up an electric heater to supplement the propane heaters in our home. Nothing is ever quite as simple as it may sound, especially with Carleen. We stopped at the Lowe’s in Idaho Falls and proceeded to look at electric heaters. To make a long story short; Carleen decided we needed a fireplace in the kitchen. It seemed like a good project so I went along. We loaded an electric fireplace insert in the truck and headed home.

A year ago, when I finished the kitchen cabinet project (see the Kitchen at 404 Blackaby Street in my projects), the end on the other side of the boxed beam was unfinished as was the beam. I went to the shop to see what I had left over from projects and came up with a sheet of Alder plywood and some Red Oak and Red Oak plywood. Carleen looked in Mario Rodriguez’s book on building fireplace mantles and chose The Mackintosh mantle. “oh, goody!, Arts and Crafts!” I “loosely” designed the fireplace around this great mantle. I did not do the bowed front or the veneered mantle. The Alder became the base and the solid oak was used for the pillars and plinths. The base and mantle are a layer of oak ply over a layer of particle board with a solid oak edge similar to a counter top. The accents are left over Sapele. All finished with two coats of dark walnut Danish oil. Of course, I then had to go back to the supplier and get another load of oak to finish the woodwork in that end of the room. So I crown molded the beam and tryed to do Arts and Craft wood work around the rest of the room. I installed an electric outlet in one end of the fireplace and pluged it into the outlet where the fireplace plugs in. As you can see, Carleen was decorating it almost before the finish was dry. Now, Calli Cat and I have a new place to sit and read, that is if we can get Carleen out of the chair.

height of the mantle is 54 inches

-- Thos. Angle