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Fireplace Mantle Solutions, first step.
By MC Ken | July 18, 2008
The trend today with new homes seems to be that the builder does not want to deal with the woodworking details around the fireplace. Instead he has his framer build in all the niches he has room for and cover them all with drywall. Fortunately this time, the builder took the same details from the kitchen and installed two side cabinets with matching granite. The surround ended up with the same granite only because he needed some fire resistant margin for code. When the owners moved in, they decided the space above the fire pit was a perfect place for a flat screen entertainment system.
Design problems and challenges…
One…The screen hangs on the wall all right, but projects out on its bracket a good 8″ and looks bad from the side. Also, the heat from the fire box below will also void the systems warranty. Everything involved has heat sensitivity issues . 
Two…The owner liked the traditional look of her cabinets and wanted a traditional mantle surround to match. The biggest problem here was that there wasn’t any side space for details of a normal surround and to keep the minimum heat setback clearances from the fire box. The openings left and right were not symmetrical. It was off only an inch but an inch can be hard to camouflage.
Three…By the way…don’t spend too much money because we spent a fortune on the entertainment.
Let’s get designing some solutions.
Topics: woodworking |