Rental House…Quick and Easy Fireplace Update

Today, I am sharing our quick and easy DIY fireplace update.

We recently bought a house that we are using as a rental property (yay, land Barons)!  It’s a cute 1950’s house that needed A LOT of TLC and elbow grease (so much for being a Baroness). We wanted something quick and easy but that would help our rental stand out in a competitive market. We already have a pallet wall in the kitchen at our house here that we love so we decided to give this fireplace a wood treatment.  

Quick and easy fireplace update:

Quick and Easy Fireplace Update

The before. Not horrible. But not great. Definitely in need of some love.

Wood Slat Fireplace Wall

Supplies:

Stained with Min-Wax Weathered oak, Dark Walnut and Expresso water based wood stain.

I started by staining with Minimax stain. The top board is Expresso, the middle board is Dark Walnut and the bottom Weathered Oak. I stained the sides so if the boards were uneven you would not see unstained wood, using new pine boards from Home Depot (our weekend date night hangout).

We (meaning hubby) cutting the boards into 6ft, 4ft and 2 ft sections.

On the bottom, hubby measured and cut as he went. The walls are terribly uneven, and it was just easier to hold the board up mark it with a pencil and cut. He nailed the boards to the wall using the pneumatic nailer.

Showing installation of wood on a fireplace being updated.

As hubby worked his way up to the ceiling, the wall curves a bit. Cutting the boards in half lengthwise helped the boards fit better.

A Wood planked Fireplace

Finished! For about $65.00 and an afternoon of labor, this makes a great impact on how the house shows. Everyone that walked through the house commented on the wall. It was a great update to help this house stand out in the rental market.

View from Gray Dining room into Living room with an updated wood plank fireplace.

A slightly better photo showing the color. Ignore the floors, I did mop them after I took these shots!

Before and after of an updated fireplace using wood.

 

See- quick and easy! The fireplace is actually not a working fireplace. I think that just makes us nervous when it’s a rental property. If later we decide to turn it into a working fireplace we would be sure to have a proper fireplace inspection first.

Take a look at a few of the other DIY’s we’ve done:

A DIY Mid-Century Accent Wall

Rope Accent Wall

Pallet Wall

Until next time,

-Libbie

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  1. Rachel says:

    The fireplace looks amazing. What color is on the walls in the dining room or whatever room is in the last photo? It looks like a brown/gray color? Thanks

    • Libbie Burling says:

      Hello Rachel,

      This is a brown/grey called BALBOA MIST 1549. I can’t remember if it’s Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams.

  2. Lauren says:

    Your fireplace looks amazing! I’d love to try this! Did you need to nail the boards into studs?

    • Libbie Burling says:

      Lauren,

      We tried to hit a stud as often as possible. But the boards that were not nailed into studs are holding up just fine also! We used a pneumatic nailer and it seemed to do the trick!

      -Libbie

  3. Sharon says:

    So very pretty! What a great idea.

  4. Thanks for linking up at the #UnlimitedMonthlyLinkParty 2! Shared ♥

  5. Rhonda says:

    Wow, what a transformation. I’ll be Pinning your post to my DIY board.

  6. Congrats Libbie! Your post is FEATURED at the #UnlimitedMonthlyLinkParty 3! Party open now!

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