It’s happened to the best of us. We toss, turn, kick and moan, unable to sleep at night because so many fireplace screens tend to be:
- Chintzy
- Cheesy
- Boring
This anguish over fireplace screens is so strong and unrelenting, it can hit even if you don’t have a fireplace.
What to Do about It
The roaring fire is so gorgeous. You need something just as gorgeous to compliment its beauty. That’s where my pal Mary came in. Actually two pals, both named Mary, came in.
Mary 1 had a delightful idea some time back. She asked me to create a fireplace screen out of upcycled metal stuff. Since she only needed the screen for aesthetics, any type of fastenings and material would do. I don’t have a photo on hand, but it came out fabulously.
Mary 2 wanted to expand on the idea. But she needed a cool fireplace screen that was functional. That meant it must:
- Stand firm against the roaring flame
- Have a back screen to stop shooting embers
- Withstand the high heat of a fireplace fire
That was a whole ’nother ballgame. And Ryndustries scored a home run!
The Fireplace Screen Foundation
It all starts with some sort of foundation, in this case a metal gate. Mary’s instructions included making sure the gate scroll stuff at the top was covered. She also hates symmetry. One more move was to amend the blechy black color by providing a ravishing rust coating.
Mary and I had headed to Gersons, a used building material shop here in Tucson, where she had picked out the foundation and other parts for the project.
The Parts and Supplies
- Thick sheet of metal cutouts from pile of metal cutouts sold at Gersons
- The back screen, also from Gersons
- Metal brackets for feet; nuts, washers and bolts to secure feet, hardware store stuff
- Metal screws for attaching screen and metal cutouts
- Paint kit that includes specialized primer, paint, oxidization solution, coating to create rust effect on non-rusty pieces, Modern Masters Metal Effects is where it’s at
- Fire proofing for final top coat
- Dremel metal cutting wheels to cut metal
The Tools
- Flat-headed hammer for pounding
- Drill for making holes and inserting screws
- Snips for cutting metal screen
- Various pliers for bending metal
- The almighty Dremel
The Final Result
Wow. I loved it. My beau Bob loved it. Dog Elmo loved it so much he even tried to pee on it (Note to Mary: I stopped him!). Most importantly of all, Mary loved it.
With all the research, supply gathering, sanding, drilling, attaching, bolting, priming, painting, screwing in screws, bending, pounding and flameproof coating, total time spent was a shade under 9 hours.
One look at the rusty rustic metal fireplace screen in action makes all the effort worth it. It’s amazing what creative minds can do when you put them together. Thanks, Mary, for one of the most amazing projects I’ve ever had to pleasure of creating.
Got a groovy project idea you want me to help you create? Go for it. Shoot me an email. Let’s make something coooool.
