This $1,500 Living Room Makeover Includes the Coziest DIY Fireplace
There’s maybe nothing more quintessentially cozy than a living room fireplace. That’s exactly what DIY blogger Marissa Calderon (@marissacalhome) wanted to create for her family’s plain living room: A cozy, rustic-inspired fireplace makeover as part of the One Room Challenge.
In her blog post detailing the makeover, Marissa said that the living room transformation was “probably her favorite” to date.
“This new-build house was completely devoid of character, with a half-vaulted ceiling in the living room,” she says. “I knew it needed more than just an accent wall. It needed something more than decorative; it needed something functional to justify taking up that full wall.”
The DIYers framed out a new fireplace for a focal point.
The solution? A fireplace. Marissa and her partner, Justin, built a fireplace framing along the 14-foot walls, and it was Marissa’s first time framing anything! “It was a lot of work and trial and error to get a perfectly square frame,” she says. “Then even more work to make sure the drywall was square too,” she describes in her blog post.
Next, the couple drywalled the framing and installed an electric fireplace insert from Touchstone Home Products.
New marble fireplace tile adds texture.
After adding a wood waterfall trim and mantel, they opted for a marble tile to frame the fireplace insert, adding a touch of luxury to the space.
“The marble surround is actually large-format porcelain floor tile that I had to cut down with my tiny wet saw,” Marisa says. “Don’t try this at home because it’s definitely not meant for running 48-inch-long pieces through it. It was a two-person job to run them through.”
The rest of the accent wall got a DIY shiplap treatment.
For the parts of the wall surrounding the fireplace, Marissa chose to add vertical shiplap — her favorite kind of shiplap. She also added DIY floating shelves that are 48 inches long and were made from 3/4-inch wood.
While the actual process of making the shelves was easy, Marissa had trouble finding the correct hanging brackets. “At first I couldn’t find thin enough hidden brackets for them, until I did a more thorough search; there are specific brackets for ultra-thin shelves — who knew?!”
Underneath the floating shelves are benches with concealed cabinet storage that are also made from scratch.
The living room makeover cost $1,500.
Finishing touches include a vintage farmhouse-inspired area rug and artwork, but most of the soft furnishings and furniture were Marissa’s existing items.
Marissa is extremely proud of her living room makeover, and she says she wouldn’t do anything differently — besides maybe outsourcing the fireplace framing, which was very time-consuming and hard on her body. Still, the fact that she did it herself saved her a lot of money. The entire project cost $1,500 and made a dramatic difference to the space.
“I’m very proud of this room makeover,” she says. “I’m a DIY blogger, and this is probably my favorite project to date. The room feels much more like home now. It’s cozy and homey, and I hope my kids feel the same way when they hang out in this room.”
This project was completed for the Spring 2024 One Room Challenge, in partnership with Apartment Therapy. See even more of the One Room Challenge before and afters here.
Inspired? Submit your own project here.