Looks like painted stone, probably faux, with added corbels. I would have liked to see their furnishings to go along with what's left.

Probably resin....shame we missed it furnished. It must have been spectacular!!

Resin... or painted stone... those both make sense. Maybe faux stone with resin lions...

I too would have loved to see the furnishings!

I thought it might be a situation where the realtor suggested moving the furniture out--- but the house has also been on the market for a while, so maybe the owners have just moved on to whiter-stoned and more be-lioned digs.

I think they probably loved it.

It might make Butternut feel better about her fireplace.

LOL auntjen!

pal, I bet they did love it. Good for them, decorating with what they love! I guess...

"It might make Butternut feel better about her fireplace" - I was thinking the same thing! I'd be so curious if those 2 fireplaces are in the same community - if there's someone out there "specializing" in this look. I haven't seen it before except for the two posted here.

This house is in the Tampa area.

I think I must have missed Butternut's fireplace.

Is this look a trend?

Is the house from the '60s? I'd guess that the stone was once a nice real stone that was painted and had the griffins (?) added at a later time.

Nope. Built in 1999.

Ha! The first thing I thought was "hey, at least someone has an uglier fireplace than me" :)

Laughing so hard at "a million tears of regret."

It looks like the chandelier is hanging almost on top of the fireplace. (I'm sure it isn't). I'd like to know HOW you would arrange furniture in that room given how narrow it appears to be and with the odd placement of the lighting.

Beaglesdoitbetter, surely this fp changes your intentions from idle curiousity to "must have it now!"?

I picture two large white sofas with a low glass table in between under the chandelier, on a sculpted rug.

amberm145, I think this fireplace is just too special for me to consider buying the house. I'd feel uncomfortable with such an artistic masterpiece in my home- I don't know how my furnishings could live up to it!

blfenton, there's all sorts of creative light placements in this home. Check out this room, which I presume to be the dining room ?

But I'm sure if all of GW got together with our respective CL and Kijiji, we could furnish that house appropriately. :D We'd help you out.

It reminds me of the coral fireplaces found in older Florida homes.

Coral fireplaces. Now there's a juxtaposition.

Have you heard of the Coral Castle in Miami?

http://coralcastle.com/gallery/

I've actually visited it. :)

I was just giggling to myself about using a material only found in tropical climates, to surround a fireplace, which I would never use in a tropical climate.

We would certainly mirror that arched window over the door to get the infinity effect on that light fixture!

That dining room is off-center is it not? You're right beagles, what odd lighting placement. To place the dining room table within the barrel ceiling, the chairs would be right under those rather odd lights.

LOL, amberm145, yes I'm sure if anyone could be up to the decorating challenge, it's Gardenweb!

Incidentally, we live in FL (tampa) during the winter months and use our fireplace down there every chance we get. We probably use it around 20 times a year.

Springroz, that would be wonderful- imagine the light bouncing if the chandie was reflected in mirrors from both ends! There's also those other little side mirrors next to the fireplace... unless those are portholes?

blfenton I didn't even notice it being off centered until you pointed that out, but yes, it looks like it is very off-centered. I don't think you could center the table under the painted dome, I don't know if you'd have enough room for chairs on the left side!

Amber, there are lots and lots of homes in central FL that have fireplaces. Ours has never worked right so we never use it. I made a flower arrangement to sit in front of it. :)

Donna

My mother wintered in the St Pete's Beach to Clearwater area. She rented a different place every year and I don't think she ever had a FP. And even though she got acclimatized and started to whine about Canada in October, I still don't think she'd ever have used it. But then, even in Canada, we only use it for ambiance once in a while.

We are fire people, so we use ours in FL as soon as it drops below like 65 degrees. Any possible chance we get, we have a fire. In our PA house in Oct and Nov (before we go down to FL), the dogs come back from their walk and go sit in the room w/ the wood burning fireplace and stare at it until a fire is made for them.

beagles - always love seeing pictures of your house and dogs.

Amber, when my parents built their first home in S FL in the late 1940s, my mother allowed the builder to persuade her that a fireplace in FL was silly, and she regretted it ever after. Always missed having one.

I guess it's more a personal thing than a weather thing. Our last house had a wood burning fireplace, which I was sad to give up. But it was so much work to get the fire going that we only used it maybe once a year. The new house has a gas fireplace because wood is a pain in the butt to get approval for. We may use it more because it's just a switch to turn it on. But we haven't used it yet. All our unhung art work is leaning against it since we moved 6 weeks ago. :P

Thanks blfenton :)

amberm145, yes I think it is definitely a personal thing. I make a wood burning fire literally every single day that it is practical to do so (either inside or out). I don't find it too much work at all.

We have a gas fireplace in FL (which was a prerequisite to buying the house) and three gas fireplaces in our PA house (along with 1 indoor and 1 outdoor wood burning fireplace, and a fire pit- can you tell I'm a pyromaniac!)

While we use the gas fireplace in FL all the time b/c it is the only one we have, we only use the gas fireplaces in PA when we aren't going to be home long enough to make a wood burning fire. However, if we aren't going to be home long enough to make a wood burning fire, we almost always have the gas ones on when it drops below 65!

Clearly it's missing something.

LOL jakabedy , that would be the perfect art to go along with the fireplace!