DIY Shiplap Fireplace

When we moved into our house we were excited because it had great bones! We fell in love with the layout and amount of windows that let in a ton of natural light. But like moving into any home that was someone else’s previously, there’s always bits that you personally might want to change to make it more your own style. For us, one of our first projects when moving in was our shiplap fireplace.

The house originally had a build out in the living room that looked like it was just waiting to be a fireplace. We debated getting a gas fireplace installed but ended up going with electric. There was already an outlet in that space so it was super easy to hook up opposed to having someone come in and run a gas line/etc.. We love our electric fireplace as you have the option to have the heat on or just the look of a cozy fire! Now with a little baby crawling around, I’m happy we have the options so he doesn’t accidentally put his hands on something hot. This is the fireplace we have.

We started by cutting out the space where the fireplace would sit and moving the electrical back. We also left space out for our TV. Our mount is attached to the wall so the TV sits just in front of the shiplap. Best thing about this is any boxes or cords for the TV are all hidden in the wall and not sitting out.

Once that was complete we used 5.5 inch MDF boards and using a nail gun secured them into place. To evenly space the boards one on top of the other we used toonies between the two boards (how Canadian of us haha).

To keep the edges looking clean and finished, we used wood finishing corner pieces. Once all the boards were secured in place we filled any holes and after drying we sanded any excess down. And to finish everything off we painted using Benjamin Moore Designer White and placed the fireplace in place.

Overall this was such a simple DIY and really elevated the space.