No Fireplace – No problem

I love fireplaces; I always have.  The only problem is – I don’t have one.  So a few years back I bought this cute electric stove to help fill the void.

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Now I know what you are thinking” wow her floor is really dirty there” and also probably “electric fireplace – ewe!”  For the first thought,  yes you are right I’m not sure what was on my floor in this picture – probably sippy cup leakage surprise. For the second thought electric fireplaces have actually come  a long ways and this one is pretty darn realistic.  It wouldn’t fool you for a wood burning stove but a lot of people have asked me if it is gas.  You don’t have the crackling sounds but you also don’t have the soot to clean up and I can start it with a remote which is always a plus in my book.

I stayed content with my stove for a few months but then Christmas rolled around and I discovered that while I loved the charm of my little wood stove,  I still didn’t have a place to put my stockings – which is why the fireplace was invented… you know besides as the main to way to keep the settlers from freezing to death.  So my mind started turning – always a scary thing 😉   By this time I was pregnant with my 3rd son and more determined then ever not to go another Christmas without having a mantle to hang my stockings.  So what does a hormone driven, slightly irrational at times, pregnant lady do when she really wants a fireplace but doesn’t have one – she builds it of course!  At least a mantle anyways.  I wasn’t that hormonal and irrational that I thought I could build a real fireplace.  My husband was going to be out of town for a week and I thought what better time to try.  After the kids went to bed each night, I would rig up the baby intercom and go on out to the garage to work on it.   It was exciting – I had never really built anything bigger than the gumball dispenser I had made in 8th grade shop class and that ended up jamming up quite a bit.  But with Mr. Thomason’s words in my ears and a plan by Anna White I set to work.  I got it done in one week and surprised my husband with it.  So here it is.  This picture is taken in our old home.

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And in our new house.  Don’t mind whatever seems to be laying on the stove.  Matt took this picture one day when he was home with the kids.  He wanted to capture the sunlight shining in and staging the picture for my not existent yet blog was not on his mind.

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And here it is all decorated with the Christmas stockings:

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Side note – notice the stocking hangers.  I found the JOY back when we were done after having three kids.  Then came my little bonus baby.  Ummm, I guess we’ll just add this snowman holder to the end!

The mantel really bulked up the electric wood stove and helps it hold its own in a room.  There are so many different plans out there if you want to build yourself a mantel.  Here is the plan I used:  Anna White Fireplace Plan

I added beadboard behind the wood stove but you could tile a backsplash too.  If you don’t want to spend the money on an electric wood stove you could still make the mantel and put a  basket of dogwood sticks or maybe some candles. So many possibilities! If I had my way every room in the house would have a fireplace!