Replacing My Electric Fireplace with a Custom Built-In

If you’ve ever let “resale value” dictate your home improvement decisions, it’s time for a reality check. Your house should work for you, not for some hypothetical future buyer who may or may not love your style choices. That’s exactly why my wife, Nicole, and I decided to kick our barely functional electric fireplace to the curb and replace it with something way more useful: a custom-built wooden insert that houses a proper center channel speaker.

The Problem: A Fireplace That Did Nothing

Our basement family room had a lot going for it—except for one glaring issue. It wasn’t wired for surround sound, and there was no good place for the all-important center channel speaker. The main culprit? A cheap electric fireplace that:

• Made more noise than heat
• Looked realistic… but only when it was turned off
• Took up prime real estate where my speaker should have been

One day, curiosity got the best of me, and I tugged at the fireplace. Surprise! It wasn’t even secured. It was just sitting there, mocking me. That unexpected discovery gave me the perfect opportunity to run the speaker wires I needed. But it still left me with a dilemma—where would the speaker go?

The Solution: A Custom Wooden Insert

Enter my brilliant wife, Nicole, who suggested the obvious answer: get rid of the fireplace entirely and replace it with a built-in wooden insert. And thus, a project was born.

Designing the Insert

I jumped into SketchUp to design a simple but sturdy box that would fit snugly into the alcove. Nothing fancy—just a well-constructed plywood case with a walnut face frame to class things up.

Choosing Materials

For this project, I treated myself to some high-quality materials:

• ¾” and ¼” walnut plywood – Pricey, but hey, sometimes the cobbler’s kids actually get shoes.
• Solid walnut for the face frame – Because if I’m doing this, I’m doing it right.

Building the Insert

1. Cut the plywood pieces – Two long pieces for the top and bottom, plus shorter side panels. And one piece of 1/4″ for the back.
2. Assembly – Glue, brads, and 90-degree clamps kept everything square.
3. Face frame – I used my Domino joiner for extra strength and alignment.
4. Finishing – A classic combo of Seal-a-Cell and Arm-R-Seal for a rich, durable walnut glow.

Installing and Wiring

With the insert finished, I took care of some bonus upgrades:

• Ran speaker wires and installed a low-voltage bracket for the center channel
• Added extra electrical outlets because future me will thank past me
• Secured the insert in place and even threw in an LED smart light strip for a little extra flair

The Final Result

The new insert fits like a glove (cue the Ace Ventura reference). It’s sleek, functional, and—best of all—it doesn’t pretend to be a real fireplace. Now the center channel speaker sits exactly where it should, and our home theater setup is finally complete…

…except now the built-ins next to the alcove look terrible. But hey, that’s a project for another day.

Until next time—happy building!

• Makrs Stain Pads Use Code TWW for 15% OFF!
• Milwaukee 18 Gauge Brad Nailer
• Domino 500 Joiner
• Titebond Liquid Hide Glue
• Wood Whisperer Guild Courses
• Seal-a-Cell
• Arm-R-Seal

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