New Fireplace

When we bought our house two and a half years ago, one of the 'to do' projects from the very beginning was our living room fireplace. I've always disliked the look of it, and wanted to give it a bit of a facelift. But it took us a while to figure out what to do - mainly because A. and I disagreed on the fire itself. While I love the atmosphere of an open, crackling fireplace, A. argues that they're too inefficient (which is true). But the kind of high-efficiency, airtight wood-burning inserts A. favoured were, in my opinion, hideously clunky and charmless. In the end, after visiting various showrooms, we compromised and bought a small wood-burning insert which can be operated with the door open. Not as efficient, certainly, but it retains a little atmosphere in the living room, at least.

The installation was done today, and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. We took some snaps to show the transformation.


BEFORE: The original setup. Ugly, undistressed red bricks, a tacky brass screen that was too big for the actual firebox, and tired, stained old tiles on the hearth.


DURING (bad pic, sorry): Until such time as we decide on a new mantel and surround (a future project), we decided to try painting the bricks white. We chucked out the old screen, and started taking up the old hearth.


AFTER: Insert installed, and new hearth laid with large porcelain tiles.

It's not perfect yet, but it's a huge improvement, I think. Eventually, I'd like to see about installing a new mantel - one in oak (stained to match the floors) would be really nice. But that's a job that can wait!