Electric Fireplace Makeover

              So here is the first project on my list. Hubby and I bought this little electric fireplace not long after we bought our first house many years ago. We needed something to hang our Xmas stockings on and this house didn't come with a fireplace, so a little trip to Canadian Tire and voila, a solution!

 Because I wasn't really thinking about it, I snapped these pictures with my cell phone so the true colour doesn't appear to well, but it was a really nice redwood colour. It didn't go with any of the other woods in the room so it always stood out, and I didn't even realise it was real wood till the day I was wiping it down and noticed that there was a ring of oil that rubbed off the finish so I thought ...cool, I can work with this.
             So the first thing I did was take all the doors and hinges off and taped up the glass. I'm using my husband's garage which was a total disaster area and can't wait for the day I get to have my own shop! 

Then using some saw horses I clamped the doors down so that I could cut out the already trimmed squares in the doors to create window holes using a jig saw. I did this to all 3 doors.

Then came the fun part of sanding. Especially the cut outs. I was going for a very rustic, rough looking look so I left uneven pieces inside the cutouts, just to add a bit of character.

I used Heirloom heavy body paint and varnish remover, gel formula, from Home Depot, with a cheap paintbrush to remove the redwood finish. Then continued to sand down to bare wood. As you can see I left a little of what it was before, knowing it would make the new applied stain look like it had deeper tones, again this was because I wanted to have a rustic look outcome. I didn't read how to do any of this I just attacked it with my own ideas. Not a professional here people, just a crazy housewife.

Before I started to stain, I wanted to add something like chicken wire to the new holes I put in the doors. I had some screening material in the garden shed and decided I would try it out. I cut out a rough size of it for each door and applied it by using a heavy duty staple gun.

Now, to make this easier I could have waited to put the screen on after I had it all stained and ready to be put back together but noooo, not this girl, I needed to see if I liked the look of the screen first, so I had to staple on the screens, cut off left over material and put the doors back on before staining. I don't recommend that. I had to be extra careful not to slop the stain all over the screens, what a pain in the arse!

Any who, I came out with the exact result that I was looking for and could not have been happier or more impressed with myself. I used a gel stain called Special Walnut, and it's just perfect for that rustic look. I liked it so much I redid our kitchen cupboards in it and its just perfect! A job well done I'd say. In our new house, another check point will be that it must have wood stove or fireplace, so I won't really be needing this in a living space so maybe I can put this little beauty in a spare bedroom or something, how lovely it would be for our guests who spend the weekend, especially over the winter months!