DIY reveal

We both, J and I, are DIY enthusiasts. Over a period of time, we have done a whole lot of projects, which is all around our home. Just that, I have missed recording the progress of those, amidst all the action. 

But this one that I am going to tell you about, was caught in the camera, and you will witness the evolution process. 

The version one of our Altar circa 2006

A sheesham wood console table, idea by yours faithfully, was used as our altar for more than 7 years, after we moved here. After placing an order, this console table took almost six months to reach Chennai as the vendor got this custom made based on the design given by us, along with our dining table, all the way from Madhya Pradesh. A chest of draws, ordered along with this contingent also arrived and it was worth all the wait.

Though the console table caught all the attention of visitors who dropped by, I had other ideas. A faux fire place. Chennai does not definitely need a fireplace, but I was in love with fire places, so I was dying to get a faux fire place. The idea rattled J, and he couldn’t understand my sentiments nor the necessity for a fire place in Chennai.

I toyed with that idea, mentally ran through having it in the specific place with dimensions and when we got into repainting, discussed it with the consultant, who  helped with the revamping and painting. He was excited & looked at all my designs, I also took him to a place where I had seen a similar structure made of cement. After fairly understanding my idea,he brought in a guy who puts in movie sets and got this structure up, for a really competitive price.

It came out very well. And here is a picture of it.

Altar, after our revamping in the year 2013

But, I was not convinced. I felt the fireplace merged with the wall it didn’t get the highlight it deserved. Everytime I crossed the fireplace, I kept wondering what could be done to make it stand out. Another coat of paint? A darker shade? Then it struck me, I love brick walls and if I can get a brick wall installed there it could serve both my purposes – a highlight and a brick wall.

An installation of brick wall is going to be messy and J is not going to agree to it. Neither did I want to go through all that trouble. I worked on it, did some research, which took some years by now and then zeroed in on an adhesive wall paper with a brick wall print. Ahem.

I ordered it, sweet talked J into helping me, knowing fully well, I can get him to complete this project.

We started with making sure the surface was smooth by sanding it first. A template was cut using newspaper as the fireplace had tiered edges. The brick wall paper came in a roll that was 10 x 1.5 feet which meant we had to work on some serious calculations, cutting and adjusting the available material so the wastage is less. And we set to work on it, the rest I would let the pictures do the talking. Here is the progression.

Making of the template -  man in action

Template on the wallpaper

The process of sticking it 

The edges were difficult to be cut into
templates 

The edges after sticking them

It looks pretty simple, but it took almost after 4 hours of cutting pasting and sticking, here is the final result.

So this is how our Altar looks right now !!!

After all the efforts, I am going to show you just one more picture, taken from our balustrade.

Did you guys like it as much as I did?