Looking for ideas on finishing the opening my stove sits in

My gas stove sits in a brick fireplace surround. The fireplace is pretty deep and I'd like to screen it off behind the stove but I've never seen this done before. I don't think the wife will accept a solid diamondplate panel and I probably won't like some fancy victorian thing but I'm open to ideas.

Here's a straight-on shot:


The space behind the stove is wasted and is going to just collect cobwebs & dead flies. I want to cover this space to hide it. The wood on the sides of the opening were there previously to hold plywood panels that hid the unused flue connector.

hello?

Sorry man, I don't know what to tell you. I don't think the screen will look good. Maybe if you paint the brick you'll be happier with it. Otherwise I'd call a demo crew and have the brick taken out all together. Beautiful stove!

???What's wrong with the brick???

I got the impression you weren't happy with the brick too, my mistake. Perhaps you could add a false wall of brick behind the stove to get rid of the extra space you dislike. Since it's all non-combustible, I'd think you could go to your local tile store and pick out some tile you'd like to see behind the stove. If tile/granite/marble sounds cool then go to a store that only sells tile, not the cheap/bulk stuff you'll find at Home Depot or Lowes. Don't forget to check your manual for how close you can build the wall, but I'd think you'd like that far better than screen.

My $0.02.

I've been considering tile and the idea is growing on me. But only if I can make it lightweight. I'll need to remove the panel once in awhile to vac out the cobwebs & dead bugs or just to check on the flue connection. Tile on 2 or 3 removable panels might be the trick.

Oh and by "screen" I didn't mean a door screen or something like that. More like one of those old perforated victorian fan things for in front of the fireplace. In a rustic cabin I was considering punched tin or a painted scene but I'll go have a look at what I can get in tile that looks "rustic".

I'm handy at building things but not much good at decorating or the "vision" end of it so was looking for new ideas. When Craig moved my post from the 14,000-topic Hearth section to the 82-topic Gas section it pretty much guaranteed I wasn't going to get many suggestions. My question had nothing to do with gas vs. wood.

how about the stuff they use to do skirting on mobile homes? it looks like old feild stone and would look nice behind your stove and is lightweight as well.

mike

Where do I go to see some? I passed under a new bridge today where someone was painting the cast "rocks" to look real. It was VERY convincing. I don't know if it was cast in cement or applied as thin sheets.

good morning guy...check out www.mobilehomeadvantage.com they have the field stone skirting...also go to your local mobile home dealers and ask them.


mike