Building a Fake Chimney Breast

highguyuk

Currently looking to purchase a house and have identified that we'd like to potentially add a little more character to our living room by adding a "fake" Chimney breast and fireplace.

I have no idea where to start, or the best way forward. Can anyone start us down the right path?

What material is best to use? How simple is it to do? How much does it cost? What other remedial works would we need to consider?

muckybutt

Cheapest way would be to build a stud wall using carcas timber from the likes of B&Q then plasterboard and paint / wallpaper the wall.

Cost would be in the £200 region.

highguyuk

Is this the case even if it's just a shallow breast, such as maybe 15cm?

muckybutt

15mm ? Even cheaper then, pack of timber laths and a sheet of 8x4 plasterboard and some corner mouldings, £50 ish ?

Fix the laths to the wall and nail the plasterboard onto them, then corner mouldings to hide the change in materials.

highguyuk

Correction ... 15cm! Whoops.

I've seen quite a few wooden frames on various forums etc, but the breast has been perhaps 25-30cm depth.

-taff

highguyuk wrote: »

Currently looking to purchase a house and have identified that we'd like to potentially add a little more character to our living room by adding a "fake" Chimney breast and fireplace.

Do you remember the 70s and 80s when people put up stone cladding?.....

A plain old fireplace surround would do the same job and be a lot easier.

SailorSam

When i did a fake fire breast in my last house for the mantlepiece i did it in Mdf. I did the main top bit about 9" wide and the glued and pinned several 1" wide strips to the edge to make it look as if it was a thick beam, then with a stanley knife shave bits from the edge, when varnished it looked as if it was aged.
When you start on the breast part try to get cardboard if you can but newspaper will do, to make a template for cutting your plasterboard.
I didn't want a straight up-and-down breast, i wanted to make it curved, from memory the sides were about 12" wide at the bottom and 9" wide at the top. Similarly the front was probably about 5' at the bottom and 3' at the top. To get your plasterboard to bend to get a curve if you wanted it, get your stanley knife again and part cut through it every few inches until you get the shape you want. Of course going straight up is much easier, depends what you want.

Update,
Another way perhaps easier to bend to the shape you want is to use wire mesh, like chicken wire. Make your framework and then buy a bag of plaster and plaster over it.