Message Boards

We recently purchased a home and we are trying to gather ideas for a fireplace remodel. We will be knocking down the wall perpendicular to the fireplace to open up the living room to the dinning room. We are still stuck on what to do with the fireplace itself. Attached is an image of the room. Any idea?

You IMO have several options. One being to leave standing and clean up the brick. You can use the brick on the wall that will be removed to fill in the area on that end to make it uniform in appearence.

Second would be to cover the fireplace area with cultured/faux stone.

You could paint the brick which is not one of my favorite options

Depending on what style you are looking for a combination of stucco/brick to give that old world look.

In any of these options a new decorative glass door set and mantle would greatly improve the looks.

Do you presently use the fireplace? Is it a mason fireplace or insulated pipe and chase? Is this wall load bearing? Is the brick full mason demensions or faux brick? The reason I ask is that it is laid one on top of the other rather than staggered for support and strength.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: redoverfarm,

I, too, don't generally favor painting brick but it might be a good idea - and simple solution - in this case. The reason I suggest that is because the brick color is pretty stark compared to what else I see in the photo. If you paint it, I would leave it all in place.

To do so, I recommend cleaning some and them priming before painting. Then a good latex flat paint would probably work best. But be aware that once you paint it, it will be near impossible to remove the paint.

All good suggestions.

I notice the fireplace is double-sided, and the smoke pattern on the brick is quite extensive. You might already have a solution in the works, but if not, you might want to have the fireplace evaluated, so you have all the cost options in hand when you make your design decisions.

You can use real stone to face this. The faux stone obviously works, but stone slab comes in 3/4", and if you go with tile, maybe 18's or 24's, the thickness can be 3/8" to 5/8".

Guess I'm partial. I've seen nice faux materials, for sure, but the natural options are just so beautiful.

Redoverfarm makes excellent observations. I'm sure you'll find cement block/masonry behind the brick, which means you have the option to completely reface with something else, without increasing the apparent mass.

This is such a key design element for this space, that you should really consider paying an experienced designer for some ideas.

This fireplace might not be the right design for your space, but the circumstances were similar to yours:

Pass-thru fireplace1

Pass-thru fireplace2

Obviously, the sky's the limit, but the point is, if you can get that face layer of brick off, your options really open up.

Regards.

Really like the idea presented in the pictures. I've seen several in designer show homes that were stunning.I would call in a designer and see what can be done, there are tons of new products out there!

Thanks for the input. We currently have a reno team in work removing the wall, popcorn ceilings, and retexturing the ceiling. After they are finished, I will get the fireplace evaluated. Good observation with the bricks probably being non structural, I did not even notice that before.