Please don't paint it. If you don't like it sell it and have some one take it apart. Don't just bust it up. Art deco was a stye of romance and elegance. Casablanca. We stay in a hotel in the caribean the is original art deco. It is so awesome.

Jen - Congratulations on your new home. Please don't alter or remove that beautiful fireplace - it's definitely a piece of art. If you can't work with or live with it perhaps you could encase it with a removable new wood mantle / surround - that is if it's just decorative at this point, which looks to be the case.

This would allow potential future buyers to go back to the beautiful tile surround if they wanted to.

I too would love to see a photo of the other fireplace(s) along with any other interesting details in the house. I'm currently living in a townhouse from the late 1930's with some great Art Deco details.

It's always a tossup. There are future buyers who value original details like this. They're looking for an old house because it has character. It's also expensive to rip out old stuff and put in new. But then, it's your house, and I always want everyone on here to abide by the Lebowski rule.

Keep the gray walls, and work with pulling in all the colors between grey and those colors in the fireplace. Veer from cools to warms. @JudyGDesigns has great input. Now is the time to think of texture, inspirations, and get off the #trending treadmill of painting everything either gray or beige.

Do you love the Art Deco thing? ? If not feel free to change. Age is not reason alone.

If it were my house, I would be going to the local historical society/library to do some research into the house's history. You didn't say where the house was located. It is possible that your fireplaces were made by a local company and could be valuable. Art Deco is coming back into trend. Also check with the local architectural salvage place to see if anyone might know something about the fireplaces. Please don't paint or remove them until you have done some research.

replace, it's vintage but it's ugly

Art deco one of my favorite eras in style and decor that fireplace is awesome for the period but I think it might not live up to our code now. IMO if it works for you keep it as is if not try to remove it with damaging it DONOT howerver paint it it will look like garbage.

You can make it work. That is a beautiful fireplace, but the color of the grey wall does not complement it at all. It would be a travesty to paint the fireplace tile. Paint the walls a very very pale yellow, or even a cream color, a warm color which complements the tile, and paint the baseboards a brown to complement the brown of the fireplace tiles. For an old fireplace, it is in very good condition. No one else before you painted it, and for good reason.

THanks so much everyone for your comments!! I'm so keen to keep it. I agree the wall colour that the room currently is does not help things!!

The other fireplaces are in two of the bedrooms. One of them is cracked unfortunately but I love the other one with the blue (which is in our bedroom) and so I'm keeping that one!

I think i need to get some professional help with it! The thing is I have big chunky modern grey sofas! So not sure how that would fit in well with the fireplace!!

Columbus the house has lots of features I love the entrance hall esp...

Good advice Cali thank you. I need to be brave and not think grey / beige

Thanks ocotillaks - I think ill do that. What a good idea!

Function then look - I won't be painting it. After reading all your reposes I'm going to keep it!!!!!

Thanks gnu36 I agree! I don't want to paint it and I love that it has been untouched so feel I want to do the same.

Yay for keeping the fireplace! I bet when you get your new house all organized and decorated and such, that visitors to your house will be awestruck!

Those fireplaces are absolutely beautiful & people are paying big money for Art Deco pieces like that. If you don't like them please don't paint over & destroy them - sell the materials to someone who will appreciate them.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If you don't like it, remove it. Don't keep it just because it's old and other people told you to keep it.

Another suggestion for you: as teamaltese opines, modern furniture and Art Deco are a great marriage, I was thinking wallpaper, instead of just a flat finish paint. The paper is from Thibaut…from the Artisan book which is dedicated to Deco and Craftsman design. Even if you just wallpaper the chimney wall….

Very cool. Some great ideas above. It's your choice, but it would make my knees weak to paint or destroy those fireplaces. Good luck, and post followup pics.

I'm glad you're keeping them - so very cool!

What tone of grey is your couch? Cbezak has the right idea with adding gold and coppers and then an accent (either Judy's salmon or the calming sea blue on the card). I feel like the shade of gray you have on the walls is not working. I love the cream wallpaper.

In the room with the broken corner are you going to refinish the floors (looks like a few things going on there)? I could see that looking awesome with a nice blond finish on the floors to really bring out the tones in the stone. Looks like a super-cute house!

That fireplace is gorgeous. Do not paint it or mess with it in anyway other than to give it a good cleaning. The only problem is your wall color. Change the wall color and your fireplace would be amazing.

It looks quite small but wery warm)

It would be idiotic to replace that beautiful surround or paint it. People's first idea is to replace, not to accept. Keep it, and you have a fun focal point. Replace it, and you have the same fireplace everyone else has. I would love to have that fireplace, but your choice.

I hope you kept all three fireplaces and used wall colors (or wallpaper) that enhances their unique Art Deco features. Any updated photos?

Hi Jen, what did you do in the end? I am in the same position- Do you have any photos?

Hi Jen, do you have any photos of the finished article ? I’m in the same predicament

Me too! Thought about painting this, but think it will ruin it.

I like the blue. Not sure on my peachy colour !

Christopher and Helen: If possible, remove the temporary “fixes” and show us what the actual fireplaces look like. It may be possible to have an overmantel built to minimize the
ArtDeco appearance. If not, you may want to consider a color scheme which doesn’t fight with the tile.

Save and work with them! Unique architectural features are rare and valuable, and will bring much more character to you place!

If you choose to remove them, work with an architectural salvage place so someone else can reuse these beautiful tiles!

I can't seem to get the tagging to work, but I love your peachy version Christopher! It totally works well with your furnishings and wallpaper. If you are looking to change, there are a lot of options... I think the blue one is super-fun too! I agree with Peter - don't give up something that is it's own unique stamp on your home!

Do you have any pictures of what you did to the fire place? I have one the same shape but it’s a horrible orange colour and I hate it. I would love to rip it out and fit a new one but as we’ve just spent the last year and a abit renovating the rest of the house we don't have much left to do that. (I‘ll also feel slightly guilty for taking out the original feature as hideous as it is even if we cover it up) So Im trying to find a work around possibly paint the tiles black with a wooden surround? has anyone done anything similar?

Lovely. So much nicer than some of the hideous pretend Victorian wooden nonsense that people are putting into their 30s houses (like someone did in mine). It is definitely a feature u need to enhance and work with though..to let it shine. I think these fireplaces are going to b a big thing in the future...like Victorian ones have been forever.. And u have one ..them !! U may come to love them. (I'm actually trying to find one to suit my house. ) Good luck.

I would love to see what you have done as well.

I inherited two of these monstrosities in one of my rental flats. They are an absolute bugger to remove, being concrete, so I decided to upcycle them with chalk paint and then seal them. I ordered perspex panels cut to the size of the fire openings and painted these to match before gluing them in place. I then sourced an art-deco style electric fire for the living room and just kept the bedroom one as a feature. Don't ask me why the living room is off-centre to the chimney breast!

These fireplaces have always been challenging. For the greater part of the last eighty years there really has only been one word for them: hideous. However, if you were aiming for a "Regency Moderne" style (mirrors, chrome, lacquers, animal prints, pink, turquoise, bamboo effect, gold) it could be amazing. Late Deco (really the style of the 1940s and pre-Scandanavian 1950s) does begin to look more interesting. Re-tread 1960s and 1970s styles have been done to death. I would think twice about removing them. It is hard to know how they will be regarded by mid century. I have a feeling that their mass and bulk will somehow come again in an age where everthing else becomes virtual and "not there".

I really want to know where you landed with this, Jen! We are considering a 1930s home that is full of these style (one is pinkish and tan, and the others are a like really mottled brown and tan). I adore deco but this is not the deco that makes my heart beat faster you know? I think I might try and remove them if possible to do safely and replace with similar era but more my look and feel, like, a marble and cast-iron deco option? But I'm dying to know where you landed so I can steal the ideas. Lots of helpful input above in this thread. It pains me to kill any historical features, and yet, some stuff ages differently than others. (Most of the other properties we looked at were Victorians with simple but elegant carrara marble fireplaces, sigh!)

We're also renovating a 1930s house and have this in our living room. I love the shape but I absolutely cannot stand the colours. This room is going to be green and grey and I was toying with the idea of painting it to match but I'm not sure if it'll work?

@Bethany Browne - the original owner /poster never showed a “final” photo after she said she would keep them. My advice is to start a new post with your photos (and make sure to add photos of the rest of the room). My first instinct is to say that green and gray would not work with a pen art deco fireplace that is in the opposite color spectrum. Your colors are cool and these fireplaces (brown and yellow) are warm.

The pros here will help you.

Haha red and yellows and browns you are correct!