Built in Bookcase/Desk w/Mantle

[GreenGA]

How timely that this thread came back to life when it did. We have a similar situation now.

Our problem is an existing 6' wide, floor to ceiling, brick fireplace with a 12" high hearth that protrudes out from the the fireplace face about 18"-20".  The fireplace is flanked on both sides with floor to ceiling mirrors and the face of the fireplace brick is proud of the mirror face by about 4".

The homeowner wants the following:

• Wrap the fireplace with sheet goods and trim to bring it more in-line with the current style of the home (much more elegant and formal).
• Install fire-proof material within appropriate, code-honoring, firebox distances.  The current thinking is, perhaps, black granite on the hearth and granite tiles on the side of the hearth and face of the fireplace.
• Create an overmantle for a portrait lit by, already installed, ceiling lights.
• Pre-wire the overmantle for A/V and power. (in case they change their mind down the road and want to install a flat-panel TV)
• Retain the mirrors but incorporate them into a bookcase & lower cabinet combination.

Other than the above, we're kinda free to come up with anything.  [cool]

Our current thinking is:

• Install hearth-top to ceiling pilasters, on either side of the fireplace and incorporate them into a slightly shallow bookcase (10.5" or 11" vs. 11.5").
• Run the mantle from side to side and, perhaps, extend the mantel into the bookcases on either side.  Think Arts and Crafts here.
• And based on remark by Brice about an outlet on the mantle for lights, etc..., we may be able to install shallow outlets on either side of the mantle within the pilaster.

Our problem is how to make the lower cabinets look proper next to the hearth.

Any ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[tiralie]

How did you make the arched doors? 

Yes, I was going to get some made but thought I would make them. I also decided to make true divided lite/light doors just to add complexity to the project [big grin].
Here is the details as to how I did them?

Here is the details as to how I did them.
From my sketchup drawing I knew I wanted to have a muntin that was 7/8” wide. I didn’t want anything too wide and heavy looking.

I used a Freud 99-281 profile for my drawing so I used that. The rails and stiles are produced by running 2”x3/4” stock once.
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Because the Freud bit set is designed for windows and doors that have one full sheet of glass from frame to frame and not divided lite I needed to make some adjustments to the bit. While it set produced the correct profile on the frame of the doors and allowed me to create a bead for the back it wasn’t working for the muntins.

To cut the muntins I removed the middle cutter then passing the stock through the router twice for each side creating a profile that looks like the following.
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After cutting the profile for the top I cut each piece to size and coped to fit.
When I was happy with the fit I then put each coped piece through the table saw to cut in the rabbet for the glass. The muntins looked like this after cutting the rebate/rabbet.
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I will upload some more tomorrow