Shiplap Fireplace With Natural Beam Mantle

Our home was built in the 1980's and featured an exposed red brick fireplace with a gas insert. My wife had been asking me to apply a German Shmear, giving a whitewashed look to the brick for quite some time. We decided to take it a few steps further, adding shiplap, a TV mount, and a restored antique beam we found in a scrap pile.

1x2 furring strips (Home Depot)

Shiplap primed boards (Home Depot)

Heavy Duty floating shelf bracket - https://www.etsy.com/shop/SilicateStudio

Concrete screws

Flat Screen TV Mount (Best Buy)

Boiled Linseed Oil (Home Depot)

Antique Beam (salvaged from builder's scrap pile)

Whitewash Brick Paint (Amazon.com)

Finishing nails

This was the original look of our fireplace. We began by removing the existing mantel. I used a wire brush and cleaned the brick, removing any loose debris. I then used a vacuum to make sure the brick was completely clean and ready for paint.

Using whitewash paint specifically designed for this purpose, you add water to make the paint as thin as you'd like. I applied the paint to the brink & mortar joints completely. For spots where it appears to be too thick or white, I simply took a dry rag and wiped that area before it completely dried. Once dry, I took a wire brush and roughed-up a few areas, exposing a little more color, making sure the final outcome didn't appear to be artificially white. This is easy because if you apply too much paint or color - a wire brush can quickly restore some of the natural beauty of the brick.

In this step, I applied 1x2 furring strips to the fireplace using a hammer-drill to pre-drill for the concrete anchors. As you can see, I also installed 3/4" plywood in the approximate area where I knew we'd be installing a heavy natural wood beam. I wanted to be extra sure the beam would be securely mounted to the fireplace. Again, I used concrete screws designed for this purpose that went in easily after pre-drilling the brick with a hammer-drill. I also mounted the flat-screen TV mount directly to the brick. This step meant that the TV would be close to the wall, giving a flatter appearance. It also allowed me to run the wiring behind the boards and down the side of the fireplace, which would later be hidden by the shiplap.

This was perhaps the quickest & easiest step. Shiplap installs quickly and easily. You start at the bottom and work your way up. Make sure each row remains level. I used an air-brad-nailer to quickly install each board. I later trimmed out the entire fireplace using 1x2 and 1x4 trim boards. You can see how I was also able to leave the TV mount exposed, making it very easy to later mount our television to the mount.

With the television mounted, we were able to measure what size beam we thought might look best with this setup. After taking a few measurements, we felt like we knew what we were looking for.

Fortunately, my brother is a builder in Maine. While visiting him, we were able to dig through his scrap pile looking at old lumber that had been removed from old houses and barns. The beams don't look like much as they've been sitting outside in a pile for years - but don't let first impressions get in the way. Just watch what you can do with old wood once you give it a little TLC! Some people pay hundreds of dollars for an old restored beam. We got this one for free and restored it ourselves with just a pressure washer and some linseed oil!

The first thing I did was to dry-fit the beam. Here, my son and I simply held up the beam to make sure it would fit as we expected. We were very lucky to find a beam that did not need to be cut - it was the exact size we were looking for! After knowing it would fit, I took the beam outside to pressure-wash it. This removed years of dirt, sand and grime. We let the beam sit in the sun for a few days to dry, bringing it back to the natural gray color it was when we first found it. I then applied a little boiled linseed oil to see if we liked the oiled look better. Once confirming we preferred the oiled look, I oiled the entire beam with 2 coats of boiled linseed oil and let it dry for a few days in our basement.

I custom-ordered a shelf bracket from Etsy that was designed for heavy-duty applications such as this one. As shown in the photos, I carved out a 1/4" recessed area for the bracket to fit in. This isn't necessary, but I wanted to make sure the beam sat 100% flush against the fireplace, so in my opinion, this is an important step. I then made sure to dry-fit the bracket several times, making 100% sure that everything would line up exactly as it needed to. This bracket had 6" long 1" round pipes welded to it that required me to drill holes that would accommodate the bracket. I was very careful to layout and measure everything perfectly as to not destroy this beam. Once convinced that it was perfect, I mounted the bracket to the fireplace using very strong cement screws designed for this type of application. Don't forget, those screws were not only securing to the brick, but also through the 3/4" plywood I installed behind the shiplap, giving it extra strength to hold the weight of the beam.

Finally, we simply pressed the beam onto the bracket. This required a few strong taps with a big hammer to get every rod from the bracket deeply penetrated into the holes I drilled into the beam - but the fit was perfect and we could not be happier with the finished outcome.

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