When we settled into our 1979 rancher in Riverside California, we found ourselves staring time and again at the massive (17’W x 12’T) blank wall in the cathedral-ceilinged living room. “Rock fireplace” was the first thought, but after having owned two Southern California homes with fireplaces, we knew we didn’t want or need another “real” fireplace – we just didn’t use them very much in the year-round mild weather. But we wanted something that could relate to the large scale of that huge, empty wall…

My background as a video technical director/designer kicked in when I pronounced that indeed it would be a fireplace, but a multitasking, 1080P High Definition BluRay fireplace.

My puzzled spouse went along with the joke and we began sketching different size screen sizes on the blank wall to get an idea of the scale of the edifice we were contemplating. A 42″ diagonal screen size seemed to be the best fit for both scale and viewing distances. The dimensions of the fireplace structure were derived from more chalk sketches and tape layouts on the wall. After framing the structure, painting the “firebox” & “chimney” flat black, and covering it with concrete backing board, a local Eldorado stone craftsman laid in the courses of quite realistic faux stone. I enlisted the able services of Doug Wilson, a local Riverside cabinet maker with a good sense of imagination (and humor) to turn my pizza box sketch of the “hearth” into a functional piece of Midcentury modern woodwork. The face of the hearth is a drop down door hung on a full-length piano hinge and is held in place by hidden push-to-latch magnetic catches. The BluRay DVD player hides in the cubby hole along with additional cables to allow easy hook-up of a laptop or other alternate media devices. A small wireless sound bar with satellite subwoofer delivers adequate audio without being too visually imposing. The DVD remote operates the DVD player behind the closed door via a hidden IR repeater. A custom, made to measure set of zero clearance bi-fold fire doors lends a convincing finishing touch.

We’ve fooled many a first time visitor to our house by having the “fireplace” burning and a stick of pinyon or mesquite incense burning in the background. As a bonus, the Bluscenes Fireplace DVD came bundled with a Salt Water Aquarium DVD, so that during the warmer months we can enjoy a cooling salt water aquarium. If we want to have a movie night, we simply open the bi-fold doors and settle back on the sofa. (there’s also a time capsule of sorts hanging waaaay up on the wall in the “chimney”, but I don’t want to give everything away…I’ll leave that as a surprise for some future remodeler!)