Taking a Pass on Gas – Wood Preferred - Part 2

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High Desert Homesteading

Part 1 of this article (link) covered the 3 D’s (Discovery, Disappointment and Demolition) of our project to replace a gas fireplace with a wood burning stove. Now it’s time for the 3 R’s: Redesign, Rebuild and Relaxation.

I ended the previous installment with a hearth half covered in flagstone, bare studs on the exterior wall and part of the ceiling exposed right down to the ceiling joists and insulation. My wife and I threw around a lot of ideas as to how we might rebuild this area with the least amount of effort but would still look good.  The end of Part 1 contained an image mock-up I composed of several different pictures showing the final idea.

Our last home had several large walls finished in stained knotty pine, a look and style we liked a lot. We wanted some sort of stone work behind the wood stove to act as a thermal mass to absorb some of the heat coming off the stove while protecting the woods studs and Sheetrock behind. I most certainly did not want to try and patch the 2’ x 8’ area of the ceiling with drywall and then attempt to match the texture and paint color. You would think an eggshell white is an eggshell white – until you try to match it and find out otherwise. Continue reading Taking a Pass on Gas – Wood Preferred – Part Two →