Free mirrors become shelf back wall :
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When I saw this fireplace wall in spite of the clutter, I knew it had great potential. After all the clutter was cleared out of the room, my vision of having built in shelves on the left and right of the fireplace was ready to manifest. Looking at the recess to the left and right of the fireplace, I knew it will be the best place for built in shelves. They were a little shallow but I knew I could get at least 12″ depth from them when completed.
Before
After
After the fire place was replaced and I laid the Airstones above the fireplace and around it, I put sheetrock to cover the existing red brick above the fireplace. All this added about another 2 to 3″ to the depth of the recessed areas to the left and right of the fireplace.
I picked up 2 free huge mirrors from Craigslist that were the exact width needed. Seeing that the left side was not as high as the right side, the mirror for the left was fine. The right side mirror although was huge was still not long enough for the entire space.
Before
After
I had to plan the size of the bottom cabinets where the mirrors will start from and where the shelves will be. I screwed wide channel mirror clips. into the brick wall and securely attached the mirrors to the wall. I used one piece of mirror for the left and the area to the right is in two pieces but this is not noticeable because I put one of the shelves directly on where the 2 pieces meet.
Before
After
I also built the entire built in and crowned it with the crown molding. I framed another free mirror and placed it on the right of the chair and built the fireplace mantle as well.
I also picked up the cabinet boxes from craigslist and modified them to fit the space. I purchased the cabinet doors from ikea AS IS department.
The mirrors make the room bigger and reflects the light from the windows thereby bringing more light into the otherwise dark room. The mirrors also duplicate the accessories placed on the shelves and I am overall very please with how it turned out.