fireplace help needed

last year

How can I finish our fireplace?
Mantel was painted white, it was a blah color with the pale tile and light walls. Since the paint was starting to peel, I stripped it down to the bare wood. There are pretty painted tiles around the insert that I would like to salvage (and any ideas what to do with them?). Other tiles are beat and stained. The hearth is marble. At the opposite end of the room we have charcoal colored built in hutches. I think it looks unfinished somehow.
Please help!
Should I:

go back to a white Mantel (boring?), or same charcoal color as hutches?
-remove and replace tile with marble?
-stain the fireplace and leave it as is?
-I don’t want to replace insert (I know it’s small) so I would like to minimize its lack of scale (tiles black?). I’m afraid of having a gaping black area in the living room.

Featured Answer

whitleyjl
Original Author

11 months ago

Final product! Painted tiles flat black, mantle to match grey built ins across room, accent/chimney sage-grey from CL paint. Added flokati for the dog.

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Comments (14)

J F
last year
I think it looks beautiful. I would leave the wood. Seal it if needed. Maybe a green plant on the hearth.
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
I am not sure what you are asking? Do you want to keep the tiles on the FP? I don't think they would survive removal.I like that you removed the paint Is this an actual wood burning FP it loks like it . Take the lamp and the candle off the mantel , lower the art and then see if you need to do anything.
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Has your strata allowed a fireplace? as any gas line would have to go through the ceiling to get from the stove to the living room or you will have to rip out some gypsum. I doubt they ran a future line anywhere else in the unit. Does the unit have a BBQ outlet on the patio/deck? You could tie in there which means the wall on the right of your layout is your only choice of location. I then have to suggest that is both structural and a party wall which means you need to confirm you can cut into it from engineering. If you run an exposed line across the floor or on the inside just off the floor I am unsure if this would meet building code, I assume not unless properly in a chase which then is butt ugly.
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I am not sure that having the bottom and the top in two different materials is necessary... You have that magnificent height which should be emphasized....Having the base different makes the fireplace look really small and disproportional to the space...top heavy. This is such a monumental element...take the advantage of it... Sometimes a use of different material can change a sense of scale, like in this project above where we wanted to make the space to feel taller and fireplace larger. In your case creating a illusion that FP is wider, the base wider would help the scale.
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Look up "tuckpointing". YouTube probably has something to show you the technique. You would want to match the color of the mortar that's in between the other bricks. Home Depot sells the mortar that you would use to do this, in different colors. I would take a picture of the fireplace and ask them for help picking the right color. Go over to the far side wall where the construction materials are.
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Here is another picture with some of the stuff removed.
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nickel_kg
last year
Generally I like wood, but I can't tell if yours is worth preserving unpainted or not. Do you know how old it is (the older, the better)? Do you see the image of an urn decal on it, will further efforts remove it before staining and sealing?

And you do have a lot of medium brown elements on that side of your room. Consider painting the mantel a deep-ish sage-y green, to bring out the color of the urns on the tiles. Or (joke) dye your dog green!
whitleyjl thanked nickel_kg
housegal200
last year
Love your space with arched wall and the fireplace especially. You did a beautiful job stripping it back to wood. So keep it. Here are some possibilties to make it the star:

--Match all wall paint to the tile color. You have two shades that don't quite harmonize.

--Or: paint the fireplace wall the green in the tile pattern. That wall juts out, so having it as an accent wall could be beautiful (And I'm usually an accent wall hater unless it's to camouflage a huge TV.) It would also minimize the lack of harmony of the tile color with the walls.
Bent Tree · More Info
PRO
BeverlyFLADeziner
last year
Select a gray and white marble that matches the hearth and install that around the FP opening.

Change out the art above the fireplace to a vertical mirror

Select art for either side of the FP that brings the black from the dining room over to this feature wall.
whitleyjl thanked BeverlyFLADeziner
User
last year
It looks lovely. I would just finish the wood. Keep the tiles. It doesn't matter if some of them are in rougher shape.
palimpsest
last year
last modified: last year
Keep the tiles, they are antique and they are allowed to be flawed. I would consider painting the mantle itself the green color of the urns or maybe a deeper version of that. I am not sure that wood was ever meant to be stained. They did paint wood a lot, even in the 19th c.

Let the fireplace be part of the Architecture of the house. It does not need to match your furniture in any way.
palimpsest
last year
Here it is green. . .not sure. Maybe it just needs to be stained a bit darker, although I am not sure this was ever meant to be stained, you can see where it is missing some composite ornaments, like an urn applique, in the top corner blocks. Often if they had appliques, they were painted, I think.
littlebug Zone 5 Missouri
last year
Oh I don’t like it green.

Bring the art down to set on the mantel and find a new home for the little lamps.
nickel_kg
last year
last modified: last year
Hmmm, maybe a deeper hunter green.... And should any of the insets be accented with a different color?

But yes to bringing the artwork down a good couple of inches.
PRO
BeverlyFLADeziner
last year
If you keep art over the FP, when what to you placed on the walls on either side of the FP?
whitleyjl thanked BeverlyFLADeziner
whitleyjl
Original Author
last year
And the dog: a light sagey green? 😚 Im not sure he woukd go for it!
Trisha
last year
The dog? A Golden shade of doodle:)