Kitchen 'faux fireplace' - have I got the right idea here?

[larrylamb11]

Hello all, be gentle as I am a newcomer to this scale of DIY! - we are currently in the midst of extending to include a new kitchen. Architect drew up the plans which include a nice surround around a 'feature' range cooker in the kitchen... all lovely. When the builders started building and we started talking to the kitchen suppliers, they both said don't build the piers for the 'fireplace' in brick as it will seriously limit the use of the room - good advice. (We had the builders leave ties out of the (Durox Supablock) wall in case we wanted to build in brick later but we can cut them off.)
Fast forward to now.... I am about to start working on putting in the 'faux fieplace' ahead of plastering. The look revolves around a nice piece of Oak we have to install as a lintel - to look something like this when installed:-

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• larrylamb11
• 28 Jun 2010
• 1

Excuse my Paint skills - never been a strong point! Anyway, you will notice that the supporting piers don't go down to the ground - that is so that I can get an under-counter kitchen cabinet underneath. The plan is to have the piers extend down far enough to stop just above the cabinets and cut the worktop around them.
My cunning plan is to use a studwork frame to support the oak beam and give something for the plasterers to clad, which I was going to anchor to the wall and into the joists above - something like this:-

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• larrylamb11
• 28 Jun 2010
• 2

Does this seem like a good idea to you? am I going about this the right way? Any advie or pointers? All comment gratefullly received.... The eventual intention is to have the kitchen extractor tucked up in the 'hood' of the fireplace with some spot lights along with the stove pipe which should go through the wall and into the chimney where the blocks are missing. Thank you

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• larrylamb11
• 28 Jun 2010
• 2

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• larrylamb11
• 28 Jun 2010
• 1

 

[Jasonb]

Should be fine, I've done it a few times myself. You won't really need the diagonal braces if you sit the studwork onto the cabinets you may just need to add a horizontal at the top of the carcases for support.

I usually use a laminate covered or MFC board as the soffit so grease can be wiped of easier and fit a canopy hood into the void such as these

These are all done with studwork

Here, here and here

Jason

 

[larrylamb11]

Thanks for that - yours look lovely by the way, the cream kitchen with the red range is exactly the sort of look we are going for.
So I will be OK using the joists to partly 'hang' the studwork? I hadn't planned on sitting the studs on the cabinets owing to the need to get the measurement from the floor to the underside of the stud spot on - we don't have a floor screed yet, so the only datum I have to work from is the ceiling and a rough measurement of where the worktop will be. I planned to terminate my studwork at just about where the top of the worktop will be and then leave the plasterboard slightly long so it can be trimmed back as required. That should hopefully give me the whole thickness of the worktop as margin for error.... or I wait until the floor screed is done...

 

[Tigger90]

I like the one with the red range cooker. I need to do something like that in my kitchen, eventually I will have a range cooker but not until the present cooker dies!!My kitchen was my old dining room that had a working fireplace, this has been removed, lintels fitted plastered etc. I now have an alcove 1100 wide with solid brick plaster clad pillars each side. I would like a nice piece of oak at the top of the alcove , with some surporting corbels or similar. Do you think this is do-able?

 

[foxhole]

The oak is likely to swell once the steam from the kitchen gets to it, allow for this movement.