You read that right - we have the stone! And better yet, we installed the stone. But let me take a moment to back this section up to the beginning of this entire project, when I had to initially source and order the stone before actually diving into any part of the build of the fireplace unit. When I initially envisioned this project, the major crossroads I came to was whether to do a soft and textural stone look or a clean-lined, trimmed out look. The safe choice was to drywall the frame and add some beautiful trim detailing. I definitely liked this direction, but when I really sat with it, I realized that I was only shying away from the stone because it felt scarier to do myself. In my heart, the stone was what I wanted.

I wish I could say that sourcing the stone was easy, but it really wasn’t. When I started the hunt back in January, our area was still in our second wave of pandemic lockdowns, prohibiting non-essential businesses from being open to the public. Instead, I had to do a lot of my product sourcing online and call around to various retailers asking for details and product samples. This alone was way out of my comfort zone (does anyone else hate talking on the phone?), but I eventually landed on a product line by StoneSelex. StoneSelex is based here in Canada, just outside of Toronto. They carry many natural and man-made stone veneers in a variety of styles and colours. I found a dealer in a town nearby and was able to make an appointment to pop into their showroom to view the product in person. I’m thankful I was able to do this, as stone is quite expensive, and I wanted to make sure that whatever I chose was absolutely perfect.

I settled on a few contenders once I saw them in person (pictured above). I wanted something that had a bit of colour variation, but that was still neutral and warm. I originally selected the Tudor Limestone, but once I tried to order it, was informed it was discontinued. I then opted to order the Rubble Stone, but was informed that it was also discontinued. I went through a series of other selections, only to be told they were discontinued too. It was extremely frustrating. I started to question whether I had made the right decision on going the stone route. However, the stone dealer eventually came back and recommended a new style that they didn’t have in the showroom yet called Southern Rubble. They sent an image by email and as soon as I saw it, I knew it would be perfect. It combined my favourite features of all the other selections I had tried to make and would have definitely been my top selection if I had seen it on my initial visit to the showroom. I placed my order and was informed it would take 4-5 weeks before I could pick it up. I had lots to do to in the meantime, starting with figuring out exactly how I would install it.

I shared more about how I prepared the frame for stone in a previous post, which filled my time as I waited for the stone to come in. Once the stone order was ready, we had to travel to the StoneSelex warehouse, about an hour from our home, to pick it up. My husband was conveniently travelling that way for a work meeting that week, so he picked it up on his way home. The product is a man-made stone veneer, meaning it is made out of concrete. The stone pieces range in depth between 1.5” and 2”. We needed about 50 square feet of product (plus 16 linear feet of corner pieces) for our fireplace, so my husband ended up driving 600lbs of stone veneer product home in the back of our compact SUV.

Once we unloaded it, we realized that the product was wet. I’m not sure if they intentionally do this to decrease the amount of dust, but I decided to lay it out in a single layer to allow it to dry before trying to install it. When I first had it spread across the floor, my heart sank a little. It seemed really dark and I was worried that I had chosen the wrong colour. But as it began to dry out over time, the colours lightened up and I held out hope for the big-picture vision. This is always such a good reminder when in the midst of a big project. Any big undertaking is such a financial and time investment that it can feel discouraging in the in-between moments when you can’t see it all coming together. But I have learned that more often than not, you really have to trust your big picture and keep forging forward. In this case, I’m glad I did.

When it came time to finally install the stone, I was intimidated, overwhelmed, and unsure where to start. When these feelings come up in a project, I have found that the best thing to do is to dig into your plan a little more. Write out your to-do list. Watch the Youtube video again (and again). Lay things out. So I did - all of the above. I made a scale model of the fireplace front on the floor using kraft paper. I drew all the details out, including the fireplace insert placement, the mantel, and the TV mount 2x4’s. I then went to town arranging the stone as best as I could across the template. I knew this wouldn’t be a sure-fire plan, but it gave me a good starting point and the opportunity to play around and get comfortable with the stone shapes, sizes, and colours. I could see what types of cuts I would need to make and patterns in the stone sizes. It maybe added an extra hour to the installation process, but it was well worth it. It gave me a much needed boost of confidence.

In terms of installation details, I opted to use a masonry grab adhesive product rather than traditional mortar to adhere the stones to the cement board. This product is significantly cleaner and felt less intimidating than digging my heels into mortar. The product comes in tubes, much like caulking or construction adhesive, and allows you to pump it out in vertical strips on the back of the stones using a standard caulking gun. It definitely took some getting used to and was at times frustrating to use, but it really did make the entire install pretty approachable.

I worked in rows, starting at the corners and working my way across towards the middle. On our fireplace, I decided to stone the entire front (with corners) first and then fill in the sides afterwards. To make any cuts, I used a handheld grinder with a heavy duty masonry blade to score the stones in the spot I wanted a cut, and then once the cut was about 1/2 of the way through, I tapped the stone against a few scrap 2x4’s laying on the ground to break it off. I did the cutting in our garage with the door open for ventilation, as cutting through concrete produces a lot of dust. The cuts were not perfect and in a few instances the entire stone cracked, but it more or less worked well with the rustic and imperfect feel of our stone style anyways.

In retrospect, the entire process was actually quite approachable and worked out, but in the moment, it was daunting and overwhelming. Physically, it is draining to work with heavy materials and the rough and imperfect nature of stone wasn’t satisfying to my perfectionist heart. It really challenged me to lean in, trust the process, and keep forging forward. This was the point of the process where I felt the most discouraged, doubtful of my choices, and wanting to quit. I’m so glad I didn’t. It took me three different days, working in sections, to finish installing it all - partly because of my other responsibilities calling to me (work, motherhood, general life), and partly because at times it started feeling too overwhelming to keep going. But words can’t describe the satisfaction that came from sneaking a peek at it from the door of my kitchen and suddenly feeling so in awe that I did that.

I’m going to save the next and final step - grouting! - for another post so I can break it down in a little more detail in case you want to try a similar process on a new or existing fireplace. But I want to wrap up this one by saying this: you can do hard things. Whatever your hard thing is, just try it. You can only ever get better at it by practicing and practice requires just one first step. If I can stone a fireplace, you can do it too.

Next we will be filling all the cracks with a beautiful cream mortar, washing out the stones, painting the mantel, and wrapping this big build up! In the meantime, if you have any questions about the process or need a personalized do-it-yourself pep-talk, never hesitate to reach out! Let’s build hard things together.

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