Random Craft, Random Update: Fireplace

This past spring I'd become a little obsessed with making furniture out of cardboard.  All the You Tube videos about it that I watched were in Spanish, with a small number in French, so I just assumed this is something that is quite commonplace as a craft in countries other than the US.  (As I say, assumption.)  Given the sewing season was upon me, I couldn't do anything about it in the early and mid Spring, but now I have a tiny bit of time, so I'm moving forth with a project!

When I first moved into my current place, I wanted to get one of those fireplaces that you set up and plug in.  I figured I had enough room in my bedroom, and it would be something I'd never had before.  I basically just never got around to getting one.  Now, however, it's long past time for me to do something new and more pulled together for the room, and after hemming and hawing about furniture and placement, I ran across a video on the tube of the you where a woman makes a fireplace.  Out of cardboard.  Suddenly, my room made sense, furniture placement came magically together and I had the answer.

I have quite a collection of cardboard in the garage.  Sigh about why.  That collection is what led me down this path in the first place - new bookcases are so expensive, none of the thrift or second hand stores in the area ever seem to have any that are large enough or have good enough "bones" to work with, and they are equally expensive.  I thought, I have all this cardboard, can you make furniture out of it?  Sure enough, an internet search later led me to the videos.

My project is based on a video called "chimenea decorative carton. ideas para decorar en navidad, manualidade faciles y baratas" by El mundo de Isa.  I did a Pinterest search for faux fireplaces and found some that I really liked, which are more traditional and decorative, which is right up my alley.  So, I’m using the information in the video as a base, and modifying it to look a bit more like this:

From article at Tidbits and Twine

While the video makes it seem like a really simple project, there was a lot of prep that I had to do of the materials.  First, I measured the space where I want the fireplace to go and realized that I need to make it a lot taller than the version in the video.  Then I went to the garage and began cutting up the cardboard.  Since I didn’t have solid pieces that were the right size, I ended up having to flatten the boxes I was using and tape them to help strengthen the areas where they’d been folded. I also ran out of the double channel cardboard that is the best to use, and ended up having to glue together two pieces of board to be sure I had the correct strength.  It took me five hours to get to the point where I had most of the main body pieces of the fireplace cut out.  I couldn’t do the insides and top of the well because I just don’t know some of the measurements yet, and won’t until I put the first part together.

I also had to stop because my back was telling me to.  One of the other reasons I’m excited about this project is that it is helping me clean out the garage so I can get a proper work table in there.  Which will be the right height for working on things.  Right now, the piles of cardboard are acting like my table and it’s just a recipe for all wrong - wrong height, wobbly, wrong width, etc.  Once I get the worktable sorted, my back will be thanking me instead of telling me to sit down.

It’s a long weekend, so I’m hoping to really put a dent in this project before having to head back to work.   It definitely won’t get done just because there is a lot of decoupaging as one of the steps and I will need to let that dry.  Also I haven’t narrowed down the paint color for the fireplace yet.  But it’s wonderful to do a project that is a little more active than sitting at my sewing machine or wig table.