Here’s how to make a fake fireplace, according to homeowners who have done it.
Install an electric insert
The first false option is to go electric. These inserts, typically ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, provide the appearance of flames without producing them, meaning no wood or venting is required. Although the exact technology varies from model to model, many versions produce the fire effect with digital LED screens and mirrors that reflect and refract light. Some include fake logs.
If you already have a fireplace opening, but it is not functional, you can directly insert an electric insert. (If you don’t have an existing opening, you can build one; more on that below.) The key, according to Frank Martinelli, a contractor with MCM General Contracting Group in New Jersey, is measure correctly and make sure you have a power source. Inserts come in a variety of sizes, depths and shapes (including arched) to fit the space you already have.
If you don’t have a pre-existing outlet in the right location, this isn’t a major problem, as long as your home is built to code with outlets every few feet. Tom Moschella, an independent contractor in Massachusetts, says a professional will need to run the wiring through the wall to install a new outlet exactly where your new fireplace will be plugged in. He and Martinelli agreed that this is an easy project that won’t make it. take more than a day or two.
Maddie Kelly, who posts her DIY projects on Instagram as @bluerushhome, opted for an electric insert for her home, opting for a model from PuraFlame that was “as realistic as a fake fire can look”. She bought it on Amazon for just under $300. “I get compliments on it all the time, and it hasn’t broken the bank.”
It was important to Kelly that the insert generated real heat, even real flames. How does this work? In most models, a fan draws air from the room, heats it with a metal coil, and then expels it. Martinelli advises paying attention to the overall size of your space before selecting your insert. “If it gives off too much heat, you won’t want to sit in the room.”
Create a decorative fireplace area
If you don’t care about heat or the illusion of flames, a mantle over a corner or opening is all you need.
For Lyndsey Wardman, an interior designer in Durham, North Carolina, her childhood home dictated her choice. “I grew up with electric fire, so I was never personally attracted to them,” she says. “I would just prefer a space where you have options like a log basket, candles, or even books.”
Wardman created the focal point of her fireplace with a plaster humpback, a vintage slab of wood recycled from a railroad tie as a mantle, and a basket filled with quaint logs inside the hearth. It may not literally generate heat, but it at least warms up the design of the room.
Ashley Taraneh, who documents her DIY home renovation on Instagram as @myuglysplitlevel, built three faux fireplaces of varying sizes and aesthetics, with and without electric inserts.
Whether you go electric or totally decorative, if you’re not working with an existing fireplace opening, you’ll need to create a new one, either by cutting a hole in your wall or building one. For a professional contractor, Moschella estimates that building a new frame “wouldn’t take more than a weekend, and that’s letting your joint compound dry.”
For the very ambitious homeowner, a DIY job is not out of the question. Kelly’s electric fireplace was the first project she took on on her own when she began updating her home a year and a half ago. She advises you to familiarize yourself with a miter saw and a drill.
But if you have reservations about your skill level, “I wouldn’t recommend just cutting into your already existing wall yourself,” she cautions. “There are studs and wires, as well as structural issues that could arise.” Kelly used inexpensive 2x4s from her local hardware store and drywall to construct the opening for her electric insert. She framed the frame for her insert, measuring and determining where it would end up going, then got to work on the drywall. Once her frame was built and the insert installed, she added woodwork to frame it. “It makes the wall look sealed and complete,” she says.
Building your own fireplace surround is arguably an easier DIY task than making the entire opening. Taraneh did this three times, using pine lumber. Each of its chimneys is essentially a hollow rectangular box made of wooden planks. She cut their edges at 45-degree angles, then “put them together to make it look like a solid block of wood.” She stained them with a finish that gave the wood an aged look.
You can also purchase a pre-made fireplace mantel from a great source like Wayfair, or for something more unique, try the vintage route, like wood from an old railroad tie that Wardman repurposed.
If you have opted for a fireplace without an electric insert, you will need to finish and fill the empty cavity.
Wardman suggests laying brick slips, or tiles that give the look and texture of real brick, inside the empty space and over the fireplace. Martinelli cautions that “there is a whole area of quality for brick slips” and that real-looking bricks will likely be more expensive.
If the traditional look of brick isn’t for you, any type of tile will work as well. Or, for a lower commitment approach, you can also just use paint, like Wardman did in her own home. “I like to change things up, and tiling would be too permanent,” she says. To create contrast, she painted the outline of her faux fireplace green and the interior beige.
For a finishing touch, filling the opening with pillar candles of varying heights can create a romantic look incorporating real fire. Stacked logs, either alone or in a wicker basket, are another reliable option. For the inside of her fireplace, Wardman filled a wicker basket with matching logs wrapped in fairy lights.
Hannah Holland is a freelance news producer and editor based in Brooklyn.
