DIY electric fireplace: how to make a portal for the hearth

In a real fireplace, a portal is necessary to protect adjacent walls from the high temperature of the fire and burning wood or coals. Modern houses and apartments are heated with electric fireplaces, since they do not require special care and the consumption of real fuel materials. Do-it-yourself portal for an electric fireplace is made for decor. This design should follow the relief of natural materials - stone, marble or brick.

Portal construction

The portal looks like a frame that decorates the main part of the fireplace. It should be a stable structure that will harmoniously fit the electric fireplace into the interior of the room and serve as a shelf for photographs and vases with flowers. An interesting solution - framing the hearth in the form of a continuation of the furniture (shelving, pedestals or plasterboard niches). The portal must be able to support the weight of the built-in fireplace.

By design, the frames are divided into stationary and mobile. Fixed portals can be made of any material, and movable ones must be strong and stable. The dimensions of this structure are small, the mobile structure must be deep and wide, and have a center of gravity in the lower part. Thanks to this, the portal will not fall if handled carelessly. For a wide shelf, you need to screw a special corner to the wall above the fireplace.

Style and materials

Ordinary fireplaces are built from natural stones. But it is a heavy material, it is not easy to process and shape it. Therefore, to create an electric fireplace with your own hands, choose wood, drywall or plywood. The portal is tinted, varnished or painted, pasted over with decorative foil.

The hearth, which will only play the role of decorating the room, can be placed in a foam, plasterboard frame. If an electric fireplace will heat the room, then the selected material must be resistant to high temperatures. It is better to cover the portal with plaster, tiles or heat-resistant mineral film.

Before designing, you need to purchase the electric fireplace itself. The size and style of the portal design depends on it.. The most popular styles of electric fireplaces:

• Victorian;
• country;
• classical;
• Romanesque;
• urbanistic.

In the premises of the Victorian era, a massive hearth will harmoniously look, framed by expensive wood, dark polished stone slabs, gilded moldings and carvings. For country-style rooms, light wood portals decorated with fine stone or decorative brickwork are suitable.

The classic version implies the presence of small columns, restrained stucco molding on the plastered surface, marble finish. Bulky stone structures with wide dark wood shelves are suitable for lovers of the Romanesque style. The modern urban portal is made of glass or painted metal, its shape is very simple, there are practically no decorations.

The shape of the framing of the electric fireplace depends on the room. Usually a rectangular structure is made and placed against a solid wall. For the portal, a base must be installed - a stone or brick pedestal. Its width should exceed the frame by at least 30 cm, the owners regulate the height independently.

Using drywall

Plasterboard portals are reliable. The basis is metal frames, they are sheathed with gypsum cardboard sheets. You will need a little material, but choose only the green moisture-resistant option. The portal is covered with plaster or tiled with fine tiles. For work, you need to prepare:

• gypsum cardboard sheets;
• metallic profile;
• priming;
• plaster or ceramic tiles;
• paint, liquid nails and grout;
• plywood board for countertops;
• decorative film imitating marble.

At the beginning of work, drawings are made, calculations of the dimensions of the pedestal, the portal itself and the upper shelf are made. The location of the future hearth is marked on the floor and wall, a metal profile is cut for the frame. Fasten the base pieces to the floor and wall, install vertical metal strips.

The dimensions of the frame are transferred to sheets of drywall, parts are cut out. They are attached to the frame with self-tapping screws, the corners are pasted over with a serpyanka. The seams need to be putty, the structure is finished with the selected material. Then a countertop is placed on top and an electric fireplace is connected. The portal can be covered with a layer of plaster and painted with white paint. A light wooden shelf will complement a country-style building. If you need to cover the fireplace with tiles, then it is pre-primed and the material is attached to liquid nails.

Wood and plywood

You can also make an electric fireplace out of plywood with your own hands. Step-by-step instructions for working with this material are almost the same as creating a drywall portal. Wooden and plywood sheets are strong, thick, therefore they will withstand not only the weight of the fireplace itself, but also equipment - a TV set or a music center.

You need to prepare the following tools:

• plywood sheets;
• frame beam;
• screwdriver;
• jigsaw;
• self-tapping screws;
• putty or paint for decoration.

In a free room, a frame is assembled from bars, sheathed with plywood blanks. Parts from the material are cut with a jigsaw, screwed to the base with self-tapping screws. Then the hearth is leveled with sandpaper, varnished or painted in several layers. And also it can be decorated with baguettes, details from a rounded bar.

Heat generator installation

The designed hearth does not have a chimney, so an electric convector is used to heat the room. It is inserted into the recess on the front side of the portal, the cord is led out along the plinth to the outlet. Then the generator is masked with a fireplace grate, covering the opening in the portal with it.

At the end of the design, grate bars for the fireplace must be laid on the base. They can be replaced with reinforcement rods. They are placed at a distance of 2 cm from each other parallel to the front of the structure. On the pedestal, you can pre-cut grooves for laying iron rods.

Instead of a convector, infrared heaters are sometimes used; they are mounted into the walls even before the portal frame is assembled. In the room, the heat will be distributed at a distance of 1-1.5 m from the fireplace. Heaters provide an opportunity to save on electricity bills.

Imitation coals

You can decorate an electric fireplace with decorative glowing coals. To prepare them you will need:

• plastic bags;
• polyurethane foam;
• LED garland;
• red, brown and black paint.

The bags are filled with foam and crumpled as it solidifies. Then the mass is pulled out by cutting the polyethylene. The inner part is removed from each part, sections with green and blue lamps are separated from the garland. Several red or yellow diodes are put into each empty ember, and they are fixed with tape. All parts are collected in one mass, they are fixed together with foam. Then they cover the coals with paint, applying black color to the side and bottom edges. The structure is placed on the grate, the garland is connected to the network. The shimmering effect creates an imitation of smoldering embers.

Creating a portal for an electric fireplace with your own hands will reduce the cost of home renovation. When designing a structure, simple materials are used, and all drawings and calculations can be done independently. The hearth is decorated with artificial coals and a real fireplace grate.