The other day I got an email from my nephew telling about a thrifty DYI project he just finished!
He did such a good job!
He sent me great pictures!
He described the step by step process!
I guess you could call this a "Guest Post" from the Sweetwater Nephew!
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| Could she be any cuter? |
" We have a big, beautiful fireplace that doesn't have any doors and may not be the most safe for a soon to be crawling baby....we had gotten a quote for custom doors from a local fireplace store and it was over $700!! Crazy."
Here is how my nephew solved the problem for way less than $700!
1. Went
scrounging around the Habitat re-store for some fire place doors that
were close in size. I found one that was a little short in height. ($20 Brass doors - in good shape)
2. Since
the door was short I need to add a base that would look seamless and
bring the doors up enough to cover the opening. I found a specialty
metal company online and ended up ordering a piece of extruded aluminum
tubing 3" x 1.5" (this was actually the most expensive piece - $37 with shipping)
3. Used some hardware I already had to bolt the new piece to the doors.
4. Went to home depot and got some steel wool and some High Heat spray paint (I
believe it was rustoleum for about $6 or 7 bucks a can - I think I used
2 cans to cover the doors with about 5-6 light coats - steel wool =
$4-5/ bag (2 bags))
5. Took the steel wool to take down all of the shine on the brass and give the spray paint something to stick to.
6. once that was done, I cleaned everything with a series of wet and dry clean rags.
7. Taped off the glass doors with some painters tape I already had
8. Propped it up and started giving it some very light coats of the spray paint letting them dry about 1.5 hours in between coats.
9. Opened the doors some to get some black in and around the hinges as well.
10. Brought
into the house tested for fit with brackets already on the door top and
some new "L" brackets I had connected to the base. ($ couple bucks at HD)
11. Screwed
all brackets to the fireplace (concrete floor for two of them and brick
for two others - concrete/ masonry screws I already had)
12. Actually
ended up using the leftover steel wool as a sort of insulation by
stuffing it in and around the doors where they overhung the opening
(seemed to work great to block out any escaping hot and air and pretty
fire proof)
13. Opened the damper and lit our first fire!
$20 - doors
$37 - aluminum base
$14 - spray paint
$10 - steel wool
$5 - hardware
$86 bucks total....
Wow....this really does look amazing!
$86 and few hours of work....
Safe Baby....Priceless!
Thanks for guest posting Sweetwater Nephew....
and enjoy your fireplace during the awful weather in NC!
1 comment:
Great find and you did a wonderful job of making it work for you.
Have a great week!
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