I am so excited, our basement fireplace project has been nominated for The Best IKEA Hack of 2011! You can vote by scrolling to the bottom of the page, they are accepting votes until midnight on January 29th.
We had originally purchased the Udden backsplash panels to use in our kitchen, but ended up going another direction and had five stainless steel panels lying around. We were in the process of remodeling our basement, and decided to make a custom fireplace wall using the stainless panels and some lumber. The instructions seem laborious, but it's a pretty easy process once you get started.
1. Measure the height of your ceiling to determine number of Udden panels and trim pieces required. Our basement ceiling was around 90" high, or so. We laid out the Udden panels (gently) along with the wood trim to determine if any of the trim needed to be cut down to match the height. Make any cuts necessary, and pre-stain (or paint) all wood trim.
2. Using a laser level, start from the bottom up and begin to build your fireplace wall. Place the bottom-most trim piece, using the laser level as a guide (chances are good your floor is not perfectly level). Use the finishing nails to attach the wood trim to wall, making sure to hit the studs for support.
3. Next, hold up the Udden panel where you want it, and mark the pre-drilled hole placement on the wall with a pencil. Install your wall anchors at those locations. Put the Udden panel back on the wall, and attach to the wall anchors using the stainless steel screws.
4. Repeat each step until you have reached the ceiling, and cut down final top trim piece as needed. Add a trim piece on each side.
5. Take your wall-mounted fireplace unit (this one burns alcohol-based gel, available at most major home improvement stores) and measure the mounting bracket locations. Our fireplace unit is from Target.com. Install wall anchors as needed, ideally screwing into the wood trim. Our particular setup required screwing through one of the Udden panels, which took a little more planning. Using longer mounting screws, drill into the wall anchors, leaving an appropriate amount sticking out to hang the unit.
6. Hang your fireplace unit, polish the stainless panels, and enjoy your new fireplace wall!
