April 14, 2010
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With a Little Help From My Friends…
It’s huge, looming over me, and I can’t decide what to do with it… it’s my fireplace.
Built is the early 70′s it has all the appeal of a rectangular wall of bricks… blah.
And not just pretty bricks.
Oh no.
There are light bricks and dark bricks and just about every color you can think of.
With a huge gray slab that protrudes and doesn’t match at all (aka the hearth).
Here are a few ideas that make me happy and the ‘view’ that I have now. Gag.
(living room area… pre-painting, but the hearth and bricks are the same)
(this is the color of the walls on both sides of the fireplace – although there are no walls touching it, its just a mass in the middle of the room, free standing, mocking me w/ its ugliness.)
(I love this mirror, I always have. I bought it at a yard sale an eon ago for $5 and used it in my room as a ‘headboard’ weighted decor for years…. but now it just doesn’t fit w/ the rockin’ new headboard my man made me.)
(Today this is my view. I ‘put up’ my mirror and a ‘hearth’ to get a feel for what could be.)
So, my friends, here is where you come in – I need help!
I am open to ALL suggestions!
I am not opposed to painting brick.
I am very interested in ‘boxing in’ the ‘hearth’ and using beadboard to anchor it to the floor.
I love the cottage look and am rather smitten w/ photo #1, and #4 (hover over the photos and you can see the numbers attached to them).
Opinions coveted!
Ideas, helps, suggestions?~G
Comments (8)
We had a fireplacer like that in our toenhome in the 80′s-it was pretty tough to figure out what to do with it. We did have a wooden mantle/shelf and found that it helped to put different things on that. Ours went through from the family room(one story) to the living room(two stories) so it was really big. We moved from there 20 some years ago so I don’t relly remember what else we did with it-I thik I remember putting something big on the two story one-I’ll have to go look for some photos. Funny, you think you will remember everything, but you don’t. I think boxing in the hearth is a good thing-not sure about the surround mantle..I’ld be interested in what others think too.
Just did a google image search for brick floor to ceiling fireplaces and it came up with this..it’s a bit of a renovation, but it really looks a whole lot better. I never would’ve thought of dry walling the existing fireplace.
Okay-here are some more-I wish I had seen these when we had the townhome-that fireplace was just plain ugly. Try a google image search, I have a feeling there are a lot more there too. ONe of the sites did mention making sure you use fireproof dry wall!
wow…I am such a TLC watcher that there are so many ideas…of coarse i can’t think of any…maybe go to their site…i love your family photo!
I am no help at all! I don’t like the new style of WHITE, and I love the old bricks, so I would keep them! All you ladies who love to update your homes amaze me!! I love to see/read what you do, but would never attempt it myself! ~Linda
ooh, love the pictures. i definitely think it should be painted white. i hope you post pictues of what you decide to do.
I like the hearth in number 4, but I wouldn’t go all white on the bricks…maybe some neutral browns, beiges and greys in random pattern to tie in the walls and the furniture.
My husband said he would cover the entire brick with wood veneer and then a row of ceramic around the firebox opening per fire code and then a mantle/hearth around that. The veneer can be natural or any color you want to stain it. and box in under the gray slab, like the photo in number 4…trim it like a wood hearth.