I didn’t have a lot of them so I made sure I sprinkled them around the screen so that they weren’t all bunched up together. There wasn’t really a method to my madness but I did start with the large diameter log slices. It took a while to cut them all down but once they were all cut, I began to glue the slices on the painted screen. I didn’t do any measuring, I just cut the log slices in varying lengths. I had a large stack of logs, some in the fireplace and some hiding in the garage, so I pulled them out, along with my miter saw, and started cutting. While the paint on the screen was drying, I got to work on the birch logs. The idea was to completely cover the plywood so that you could only see the wood slices (as if they were stacked in the fireplace). With the plywood for my screen complete, I quickly threw a couple coats of black paint on the front of it. It fit perfectly…and the “wings” did a great job of holding it up. Once I finished with the base I took it up and fit it in the fireplace to test it out. No one would ever see the back side so I didn’t worry about being too neat. I just cut out two “wings” out of the sheet of plywood that I had and screwed them into the piece of plywood I cut for the screen. So to make it sturdy I made a type of stand for the screen, almost like a freestanding fireplace screen. We had to be sure that the wood would sit in the fireplace and not fall over, remember Cooper plays in this area. I used a jig saw to cut the plywood from the measurements of my opening. I chose to go with a sturdy piece of 1/2″ plywood, knowing that it would handle the weight of the logs and stand in the opening without falling. The idea was to fit the screen in the opening to completely cover it. The first thing I had to do was to carefully measure the fireplace opening.

Supplies for fireplace screenĬreating a fireplace screen with birch logs I knew that I could make something myself so I pulled the logs and candles out, for the last time, and went to work creating a birch log fireplace screen.

I was going to try to do something with the old iron screen that was in front of the fireplace when we moved in but it was heavy and if it got knocked over, one of the dogs would get hurt.

Something that would keep an energetic pup out. So, what can I use to cover fireplace opening?Ī fireplace screen or cover would be perfect.

Birch logs for fireplace