Ideas needed for fireplace surround/mantle

[olsonbri]

A pic is worth a thousand words, so I won't say much. We had a KozyHeat Z42CD installed in an existing hole. Who has ideas to make it pretty? We are willing to replace the slate tiles on the hearth. We had to take down the mantel due to fire code violation, so as a result of pulling off the mantle there are 3, ~14" wood 2Xs in the place of brick exposed (see photo).

We've danced around some of our ideas but my wife & I are really shallow on what to do and need some creative minds!!

Thanks! --Bri

 

[hwdemers]

Log mantels.com
Something in a live edge might help soften things up a bit. There are so many straight lines in the pic some curves might be a nice contrast imho

 

[olsonbri]

Thanks for the curves idea... should go in that direction... But if our house burns down and they find we had a wood mantle that close to the z42 we may be homeless forever!

 

[hwdemers]

I'm not sure What you mean. You can install one using the requierments listed in the manuel. Another idea would be 45 the corners. Or a beam and tile with the same tiles as the floor of the hearth

 

[KB007]

I just mae one out of some pine and a bit of trim, then distressed it to look old, then stained it a honey pine. Pretty easy really, just lag a 2X4 to the masonry and screw the "box" onto the 2X4. Size etc would be determined by your FP clearances.

 

[hwdemers]

Looks good!

 

[olsonbri]

Thanks all... I like that design too, KB007. Love the granite. We keep seeing lots of scrap granite at the renovation station in OKC dirt cheap. If I could just figure out how to cut & polish the edges we might just do that (or find someone who can). As for the mantle, we were just told that to be in compliance with code we can't have any wood products 18" above the z42. I was just thinking in terms of insurance purposes, that we need to chisel out the wood 2Xs which are in the place of 3 bricks. Any ideas for a non-combustible product for the mantle?

 

[KB007]

Why wouldn't you just build the mantle >18" above the fp? If you really need to do somethin non-combustible, you could do something in metal, lots of metal brackets out there (steel or AL) and then add a nice Aluminium shelf. Could do something in glass with metal brackets.

 

[olsonbri]

We could build it above to 18" alright, but then that leaves the 2Xs exposed. They are about 12" above the z42. It's not that bad, but if they were hidden by a non-combustible mantle @ 12" that would be better. I guess we could cover with tile/steel or AL.

 

[KB007]

You could probably carefully get those 2X4's out, and get something non-combustible in their place (metal or stone. Whatever you install could then form the anchor points for a metal shelf (AL, brass, copper, whatever you like). Would be nice to know what's in behind the wood - are they really 2X4 or something shallower?

 

[olsonbri]

The are definitely 2x4's. Before they put the fireplace in I could crawl back there and see the back side of the brick and wood.