This template will make a basic cardboard fireplace that you can cover with different materials to look like bricks, stone, slate, or whatever else you can think of!
I’m going to make a bunch of these so that I can experiment with covering them in different materials and decorating the mantels for different occasions.
Designing the template.
I used the fireplace surround in my living room as the guide to how big the dollhouse 1:12 scale should be, but I took some liberties with it to round out any tiny fractions.
I also wanted the mantel to be a little deeper than the real one, because I’m going to decorate them later and I want to have enough space to add things to them.
I used some stiff cardboard cardstock to draw the template.
I added some tabs on the template to use for folded sides to give the fireplace surround some depth.
I cut out the template and the inner part, leaving the fold lines uncut.
On the printable template, the solid lines are the ones that you cut, and the dashed lines are the ones that should be folded.
Using a ruler to make sure the score lines were straight, I scored the lines that were going to folded in.
I folded the sides and inner walls of the fireplace along the score lines.
I traced the outside of the fireplace along the folded lines so that I could cut out a piece to glue to the front.
If you want to, you can add tabs to the front so that you’ll be able to glue those to the front part.
This can make it easier to attach the pieces together, but you can also use tape instead of glue if you’re going to be covering the fireplace with something that will cover it up.
Cut out the front section of the fireplace.
I used hot glue on the edges of the folded sections and glued the front section onto it bit by bit.
If you’re planning on covering the fireplace with something like egg carton stones or bricks, you can use tape, but if you’re going to paint it then you should glue it together so that there isn’t anything on the surface.
After I had glued the front onto the folded sections, the fireplace was a little twisted, so I glued it onto a flat piece of cardboard to stabilize it.
I then glued the mantel onto the top of the fireplace to make sure it was stuck.
Here’s the finished fireplace, ready to be covered in different materials.
I’ll be making a few to use different surface treatments, so check back to see those.
Put the fireplace in the dollhouse to check the scale. If your dollhouse is 1:12 scale it should look fine.
Remember that when you cover it with surface decorations it will look thicker.
This template is sized to print on a regular letter-sized page, and you can print it out and use it for a pattern, or print it on heavy cardstock and cut it out and fold it directly.
More templates and printables are available here: Templates and Printables
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