We have one. Be aware of the additional expenses. You have to pay frieight. You have to hire someone to take it off the flatbed and store it. You have to hire at least two people to install it. These things are beyond heavy! (If they get wet, they get even heavier.)

There's cast stone and there's cultured stone. Most I've seen are made from plaster that looks substantial but is actually quite light in weight.

Check which it is before you purchase.

Also price shop!

Many of these items are outrageously overpriced.

Thanks for the link to Stone Magic. We want to put 2 stone fireplaces in our new home. One in Jim's study and one in our hearth room area next to the kitchen. I love the ones I saw in that site.

There is another cast stone place in Dallas. Here is a link. http://www.oldworldstoneworks.com/mantels.html They also do hoods.

Here is another place I saved. Not sure where this is but the mantels are gorgeous and bit more pricey.
It is www.francoisandco.com. Great for inspiration.

Freight is a large part of the cost! We used cast stone on the outside of our home. We considered purchasing it from Stone Legends, but the shipping costs from Texas to Virginia were approaching $1K. For perspective, we had to have the company that we actually did purchase the product from ship 1 piece (to replace a broken one)...just for the one piece which weighs 150 lbs the shipping was $100. The piece itself was only $45!
I love cast stone...I think it would make a gorgeous fireplace surround!

We ordered ours from Mission Stone. They are heavy - we had three trim carpenters, another man and DH install ours.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mission Stone

They are very nice to work with, Vineyard. I purchased the first one on their home page slideshow, but I didn't want the mantel piece as tall as it comes. They were happy to make it smaller for me. I deleted the very bottom detail. It still has the second from the bottom detail - underneath the smooth/middle section...hope that makes sense.