Our fireplace was constructed with heat-a-lators; these were openings in the stone to allow for fans to help distribute the heat from a stove insert. When we bought the house we removed the fireplace insert and decided not to use them. That left us with two openings carved out in the stone to repurpose in some way.

Creating a Diorama

I wanted to do something fun with this little space, something that would surprise and delight. I settled on creating a miniature library! It was actually a lot of fun to make tiny books and shelves from scraps.

The oriental rug was from a coaster set! The candlestick was a jewelry finding. I sometimes change out the figurines. We love gnomes in our family.

Then we decided to add doors to hide it and increase the surprise factor. My husband carved the wooden doors from old scrap wood. We love asking visitors to open the doors and our grandchildren love “visiting the library” whenever they come over.