Fire Screen Tutorial - Part 2

Hi everyone. I have just got home from work and I am armed with a coffee, so on with the tutorial.

The next step is to work on the bottom of the fire surround. This is one of those projects where you can rattle through your scraps of wood to choose the wood pieces for your surrounds. The bottom piece of wood could just be a straight piece of wood or something really fancy if you want. If you are a scroll saw guru you could even create a shaped piece of wood for the bottom and top of the fire screen. I like to use a piece of dolls house architrave. Cut the piece of architrave the same width as your fire screen and hold it against the bottom of the screen to check it fits well. If you find the bottom edge of your screen isn't as straight as it could be just run it over sandpaper to get an even surface. Then paint your choice of wood with the same paint treatment as you have done the side pieces and finally glue it on to the firescreen.

Just a note: While for efficiency of time when making these screens it would be sensible to cut all pieces of wood and paint them all at the same time, I have a tendency to sand and sometimes trim the screen as I go. That is just the way I work. I prefer to cut pieces to fit as I move from stage to stage. It gives me the freedom to choose the wood and make any changes as I go (or to tidy up bad cuts or inaccurate measurements!).

The next step is the top of the screen. The possibilities for this are endless. You might like to look at fire screens on Google images for ideas. For the screen I did for my giveaway I used a Kaisercraft Wooden Flourish. I don't have any of those to hand so I am going to improvise and design a different top for this firescreen. I've looked through my wood bits and pieces and this is what I am going to use - a 5mm x 3mm strip of wood and a strip of tiny turnings.

Once you have made your choice paint the wood pieces.

(Arrhh - it is dark already - I miss daylight savings. I am just going to have my tea and I will be back to finish the tutorial. I'm determined to finish it tonight. See you soon...).

I'm back. Now glue the wood strip to the top of the fire screen to give it a tidy finish.

I then cut the two ends off the tiny turning and trimmed the centre length of the tiny turning to fit in between. Glue together and attach to the fire screen.

Lastly for the feet I use little laser cut brackets. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph them before I cut pieces out of them but I stole this picture off the internet (sshhhh, don't tell!) - they look like this:

I then cut a slit out of the right angle corner to slot the bottom of the fire screen into.

And there we have a (an aged) fire screen using antique wallpaper and scraps of wood:

I will touch up the paint work a bit tomorrow when it is light enough to see and will give the screen a spray of protective matt varnish.

And just to finish this tutorial here are the pics of my February giveaway fire screen for another version:

Anyway that is it for tonight. Hopefully you can follow my ramblings.

Tomorrow I can start working on my little Easter project.