Custom Fireplace & TV Wall Build-Out in Jacksonville Beach, FL

The Project

This living room in Jacksonville Beach, Florida had good bones. Light wood-look floors, linen drapes, plenty of natural light from big windows on both sides. But the focal wall was completely empty. A flat-screen TV floated in the middle of a plain white surface with cables dangling down to a cluster of cords and power strips along the baseboard. The homeowner knew the space deserved better: a real built-out fireplace wall with a clean, architectural finish and a hand-built rustic mantle to bring warmth and character.

The before photo shows exactly what we walked into. A TV wall-mounted mid-air, cords trailing down bare drywall, no hearth, no structure, nothing to anchor the room. Newer Jacksonville Beach builds come this way all the time, and it leaves living rooms feeling unfinished. Our job was to turn that flat wall into a full custom feature. Framed build-out, integrated linear electric fireplace, flush TV niche, and a one-of-a-kind rustic mantle, all wrapped in a smooth painted finish with no visible seams.

The Challenge

Proportion and balance. That was the whole game on this one. The wall sat between two generous windows, so the build-out had to be sized carefully. Wide enough to feel intentional and substantial, but not so deep or wide that it crowded the window trim on either side. Getting that symmetry right from the start meant precise layout work before a single board was fastened. The other piece was setting the electric fireplace insert into the frame so cleanly that the finished surround would look like it had always belonged there. No visible gaps. No raw edges. Just a crisp black liner flush with the surrounding drywall.

The Build

We started by laying out the full stud frame directly against the existing wall. As the framing photo below shows, the structure is dimensional lumber, vertical and horizontal members spaced to carry the weight of the TV above, the fireplace insert below, and eventually the drywall and mantle shelf. We set the fireplace insert into the frame during this phase to confirm the rough opening dimensions before anything got sheathed. Confirm it in place now or cut things open later.

With the skeleton complete, we sheathed the frame with drywall. The photo below shows the build-out mid-skinning. The upper portion is already closed in, and the lower fireplace bay is still open so we could make final adjustments to the insert position and run wiring for both the TV and the fireplace before buttoning everything up. That sequence is what keeps the finished wall looking completely clean.

Once the drywall was taped, mudded, and sanded smooth, we installed the TV and fired up the electric fireplace insert to confirm everything sat perfectly flush. The photo below catches the wall at that nearly-finished stage. The insert glowing, the TV recessed into its niche above, the surface ready for paint. And the hand-built rustic wood mantle is taking its place between the two. That raw, heavily grained beam shelf is the detail that ties the whole piece together, a grounded, organic counterpoint on an otherwise crisp white wall.

The mantle itself was built by hand from a chunky, heavily textured wood beam. The kind of piece that looks like it was pulled from an old structure and given new life. Deep grain, natural cracks, an irregular surface a stock mantle shelf simply can't replicate. Set between the sleek linear fireplace below and the wide screen above, it holds that balance of modern and rustic that's hard to pull off and reads effortless when the proportions are right.

The Result

The finished Jacksonville Beach living room is a genuinely different space. What was a bare, forgettable wall is now the clear centerpiece of the room: a floor-to-ceiling custom TV entertainment wall with a working electric fireplace, a statement rustic mantle, and a TV integrated so cleanly it looks like the wall was designed around it from day one.

The front-on view gives you the full composition. The TV sitting perfectly level in its niche, the ambi-lit screen glowing with color, the rustic beam mantle floating just below it, and the linear fireplace stretching wide across the lower face of the build-out. The white drywall finish is smooth and continuous. No visible seams, no raw edges, nothing to give away that this entire feature went up from scratch in a matter of days.

The side angle shows how well the build-out sits in the full room. It fills the wall between the windows without crowding them, and the proportions feel deliberate and settled. Dressed with a pair of curved black chairs and a chunky wood coffee table, this Jacksonville Beach living room finally has a focal point that makes the whole space feel designed instead of assembled.

The straight-on room view is our favorite. Two chairs flanking the fireplace wall symmetrically, the big ceiling fan overhead, warm light from the electric insert playing off the room in the evening. Exactly what she had in mind when she reached out to us.

The review says it plainly. The crew was good to work with and the fireplace build-out came out exactly as hoped. That's the standard we hold on every custom entertainment wall we build in Duval County. Clean execution, honest work, and a finished product the homeowner is genuinely proud of.

Ready for Your Own Custom Fireplace Wall in Jacksonville Beach?

If you're living with a bare TV wall in your Jacksonville Beach home and you're ready for something built to the inch for that exact space, we'd be glad to talk. AVP Construction JAX builds custom fireplace walls, TV entertainment centers, and feature walls throughout Jacksonville Beach and the surrounding Jacksonville, Florida area. Everything from the stud frame up, custom to your space and your taste.

Reach out to AVP Construction JAX INC today and let's talk about what we can build for you.