Easy DIY Shiplap Fireplace

Above is a photo of this wall before. This is a pretty long wall extending into the living room to the left and it always felt so empty. The previous owner’s of our home left this electric fireplace so that was my entire inspiration for this design. In the end it all came together nicely. It’s been a fun place to relax. I’ve since sold these chairs and plan to eventually purchase new ones but in the meantime the boys and I have fun playing on this soft cozy rug. It’s the perfect spot to build towers with magnatiles 😉

The DIY Process

This was the first bigger DIY project we tackled in our home. It was a great one to start with. I also want to mention I have no background in carpentry so if I can learn, so can you! the main tools we used for this project include:

miter saw
nail gun
stud finder
level

The Prep

The first thing you will want to do is make sure your shiplap boards are all the same length. Then locate and mark on the wall where your studs are. After a lot of debating we decided to start from the bottom and go up for this project. We also choose the exact location of the boards based on the location of the studs. We wanted to ends to each be as close to a stud as possible to avoid them from lifting away from the wall. This way we didn’t need to use liquid nails or an adhesive in addition to the nails.

The Process

Once the prep work is done it goes pretty quick nailing the boards to the wall. Use a level to make sure the first board is spot on. From there they should all fall right into place but I like to check a couple more times as we’re going to be sure. We used a nail gun with 2″ nails to secure the boards into the studs. I chose 3 spots, with 2 of those being the outer most stud closest to the edge of the shiplap, and another in the middle. I used 2 nails at each location, one towards the top and another towards the bottom. To finish, I used a squared board to completed the edges on each side.

The Finishing Touches

After the boards are up you can use a wood filler on the nail holes and paint. I used Benjamin Moore Wrought Iron here. We purchased the mantle from Lowe’s but I were to do again, now that I have a little more knowledge with building things, I would probably just make one.