No Sew Decorative Fireplace Screen Practically Made For You

One of the projects in my book, Instant Decorating was a DIY decorative fireplace screen I made to accent the décor in my family room. I made it using a cardboard sewing pattern cutting board that you can buy at fabric stores.  It comes folded like a decorative screen so half the work is already done for you.

Do you hate looking at this?

Presto-Chango!

Decorative screens can not only be used to hide a dirty fireplace, but they can brighten up an empty corner, hide a pile of kid’s toys , radiators, or just about anything you need to keep in a room, but would like to hide.

This handy screen is not only easy yo make, but it is easy to store and move around as needed.

How to Make a Decorative Fireplace Screen Using Fabric

supplies needed: 

• Cardboard pattern cutting board – you can buy these at sewing and craft stores. The fabric I used for the screen is from JoAnn’s Fabrics – isn’t it yummy?  It is called Mesmerize Sorbet. Normally $10.99 yard, but I used a coupon and got it 40% off.
• 2 yards of fabric. If your fabric is light in color, you may want a liner fabric to hide the blue lines on the cutting board or you can apply the fabric to the brown side of the cardboard.
• Spray adhesive
• Awl
• Scissors
• Brass Fasteners

How to  Make a Variation of the Fireplace Screen Using Gift Wrap 

Here is a scanned image of the one that was in my book. As you can see it is not the best quality image, but you can see it is different from the one above as I cut the top in a decorative arch shape to resemble a fireplace screen I once had.  I have included the steps here on how I did this variation of the screen.

supplies needed:

• Cardboard sewing pattern cutting board
• Utility knife
• 2 rolls of gift wrap
• Spray Adhesive
• Pencil

1.  Remove two panels from the board with a utility knife. The screen will now only be 4 panels wide.

2. Fold remaining board in half. Draw and mark pattern on two panels.  You can draw it freehand or use a large plate or platter to create the rounded edge.  Cut pattern out with utility knife. Fold the two cut panels onto uncut panels and trace outline; cut second side following pencil outline to create identical sides.  (Fig. 1)

Figure 1

3.  Lay two rolls of gift wrap pattern side down on the floor. Decide where you want the seam  – the middle fold is a good place.    Make sure you match up the patterns where you are seaming the two rolls of giftwrap together.  Place the cut board plain side down on top of gift wrap and lightly trace outline of board with pencil. Draw a second line 5-inches outside the first line and cut the gift wrap on the second line with scissors. (Fig. 2)

Figure 2

4.  Turn cut board over and apply spray adhesive onto board and let dry until tacky. Carefully center top piece of gift wrap over board. Working from center out to all sides smooth out gift wrap with your fingers to avoid creases and air bubbles. Repeat with second piece of gift wrap to cover remaining board.

5.  Cut excess gift wrap as shown to wrap around edges. Spray adhesive along back edges. When adhesive is tacky, fold over gift warp as shown in (Fig. 3) to adhere. Smooth with hands to flatten.  You can add more gift wrap to the back to create a more finished look or leave as it is.

Figure 3

Instead of applying the gift wrap to the screen in full sheets, cut it up into small pieces and use Mod Podge to overlap the pieces to cover the screen.