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Danielle’s Fireplace – Pick My Presto

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Happy Wednesday!

Do you know Danielle? She blogs over at Silver Pennies and she and her family live in a Dutch Colonial home (in Scituate, MA) that was built in 1927.

She sent me this photo of her fireplace, along with the following email recently:

Hi Layla,

I’d love your help with our fireplace! We’ve lived in our house now for almost 4 years and I fell head over heels for all the dark woodwork, the mantel included, but the fireplace has me stumped. I wondered if you could help me with a Pick My Presto?

Currently the fireplace doesn’t work. The hearth is cracked and I don’t like the brick or the floor tile. I did try washing a few bricks with chalk paint a few years back and then I thought, “Oh, I’ll just paint the inside black (oven paint) and paint the brick and tile white until I can figure out something else”, but then I thought, “Hmmm, that might look weird with the white walls”.

We would like to put a gas fireplace in, but that opening would be much smaller than we currently have. We thought about getting rid of the mantel and doing something different, but I like the weight of it and it seems to fit as it’s original to the home. I plan on re-staining it and adding some scrolls as the original is missing.

What do you think? We’ve thrown around ideas of doing period tiles in place of the brick, or maybe that German Schmear, or white paint, or tiling over with marble. In place of the floor tile, we’re thinking honed granite. I like the look of beach stone too but my husband does not.

Would love your design eye! Thanks in advance!

Danielle 

__________________________________________________________

I love a fun design challenge, so here’s what I came up with keeping these two things in mind:

1- Danielle loves and wants to freshen the mantel up by sanding and re-staining the wood. (Not painting it!)

2- Danielle doesn’t love the brick or the tile on the hearth.

And instead of Photoshopping all the ideas Danielle mentioned at the end of her email, I thought I’d put together a few options that she didn’t mention, in hopes that’s fun for her to see a few other ideas.

First up, if it’s the tone of the brick she doesn’t like, I’m wondering if there’s a way to mix up a few different colors of mortar and then paint a thin-coat of it onto the surface of each brick? Since they plan on burning wood in the fireplace, I don’t know if faux finishing them (with paint) would be the best (safest) idea, but using mortar as paint might do the trick if she decided she just wants a different tone. I also showed what it would look like if she used some kind of concrete product on the heart and inside the firebox. First, light gray…

…and then, dark gray:

The darker gray definitely grounds the fireplace more than the lighter, but either color works in my book!

Next up, what about a more historic-inspired tile, like this:

It’s a mini subway tile, which feels both historic and current, and I tried it with both concrete colors again.

Or what about a cement tile? They originated waaay back in the day, but I think they look so fresh in homes today. It wouldn’t necessarily have to be the one in this particular photo, but hopefully it’ll give Danielle an idea of what that type of tile might look like:

Here it is with the lighter gray hearth:

Oh! I “painted” that little cabinet next to the fireplace to break up all the wood tones that touch each other over there too. (Just an idea, Dani! XO)

And last but not least, since Danielle mentioned marble, I thought I’d paste some solid pieces of it in there. It’s probably not feasible without removing the brick, but I love doing “construction” for free, just to see what it would look like:

I “painted” the inside of the firebox black (heat resistant paint) and suggested she use some kind of gray tile (which would speak to the gray veining in the marble) on the hearth. It wouldn’t necessarily have to be *that* tile, but if it’s original to the home (and maybe if it was just the *color* of the tile that wasn’t to Danielle’s liking), she’d like it if it was painted or re-installed in a different color?

Anywho- I hope that gets her gears turning, and I can hardly wait to see what she and her husband decide to do there!

Layla

PS- Dani, please come over for a guest post when y’all finish the makeover. 😀 I know there will be a lot of us who are excited to see your in-progress and after pictures!

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Comments

  1. Danielle

    A million thank you’s, Layla. I love all the options and styles you gave me in this post. It really helps seeing it. I really LOVE the marble with the dark base but also think those tiles are super fun. LOTS to think about. Thank you again for doing this. Can’t wait to see you at Haven. xx

  2. wp

    The last picture is beautiful with the marble encasement. The black firebox is also great and the tile in a deep gray matching the veins in marble tops it off!

  3. sandyc

    I loved the marble with the dark base best as well, even though I don’t have a fireplace. It somehow makes the whole fireplace a substantial feature of the room without any aspect of it being too busy and it seems to fit the house. I definitely like the idea of painting that cabinet beside the fireplace and the color Layla chose, with the blue cabinet showing in the room behind it, is a perfect finishing touch. Hope you will post after pics.

    • Danielle

      I think I will paint that little cabinet. It’s one from my childhood that my mother found antiquing and used to store all my book reports. I hadn’t painted it yet due to sentimental value but my mom’s been telling me to paint it for years. 😉

    • Danielle

      Thank you for this link. It looks gorgeous. In our last home we had a real working fireplace but I like the convenience of having gas and is perfect if we lose power which can sometimes happen here on the coast.

  5. Kary

    I love the marble and dark base hearth and the black painted firebox too! Oh yeah, the blue wood piece is so beautiful and it stands out in the room like its saying “yoohoo, look at me!!”

  7. Tonya @ Rustic & Woven

    I LOVE when you do these posts! The historic tile with the dark hearth is my favorite by far but they’re all beautiful and would fit Danielle’s gorgeous home so well (I’m a huge fan of her blog too). Can’t wait to see what she chooses!

    • Danielle

      I really liked that option too. The marble or the tiles. Now it’s making me question my desire for gas or if I should just have the chimney lined for a real fireplace….

      • hello haha narf

        have you had a chimney sweep in to see if a liner will work? because that mantel and the dark grey hearth with the marble is swoon worthy! stunning! (the boyfriend who works for a company who installs custom gas fireplaces would shake his head at me because clicking a button for a fire with no soot flying around makes him happy, but oh how i adore a real fire.)
        whatever you choose, your home is lovely. enjoy!

  8. Taste of France

    I vote for the marble as well. I think what was off in the original was the color–the bricks were too red. But tan doesn’t quite work either. The white marble with a grey vein is nice because it’s light but not as perfect/touchy/bright as solid white.
    I think that if you’re going to have a fireplace, it might as well be for real (not gas). Go big or go home! Nothing beats the sight, sound or smell, despite the messy drawbacks.

    • Danielle

      Ha! Ha! I know there’s nothing like a real fire. I’m just not very good at lighting them so thought the gas would be more convenient but you and Layla have me reconsidering gas for real. Lining the fire and not putting gas in would be cheaper 😉

  9. Isobel Westfall

    All of the choices you presented are lovely. I would need to know what style of furniture is in the room before I could decide. Painting the cabinet is a must as the first thing I noticed when I saw the before picture was that the fireplace wood and the cabinet wood were screaming at each other. Also, I definitely would paint the interior with a black paint designed to withstand heat. I did this in mine and it was a very good decision. It never looks messy with smoke smudge.

  10. Susan

    This is interesting to me, we live in Kansas & just sold our Craftsmen home built in 1910, our fireplace In the living room – had those exact same color of red & same size red tile on the floor in front of the fireplace…..the fireplace mantle was original to our house & the woodwork also

    Our fireplace had red brick & with my blue & white furniture…….did not do a thing for the room, I wasn’t proud of myself for it…but my husband painted over the old original red brick, we knew we would not live there forever, so just left it painted…had we stayed, we would have made a design decision but just left it – painted brick

    The buyers liked it…..the mantle there was the original & did not have the finished polished look…..which I prefer, if I had it to do over, we would put up a new mantle.

    All of the suggestions are great, I love the dark grey hearth you showed!

  11. Maryjane from Manitoba, Canada

    My vote (for whatever it’s worth) is for the first option with the lighter brick and the lighter floor. Wow. That seems to take a lot of …”heavy” out of the room. I like the energy it adds.

    I love how it looked when Layla changed the colour of the cabinet beside the mantel. I’m NOT one for painting wood generally, but I guess I do practice a little feng shui – subconsciously trying to balance the elements in a room.

    I actually checked out http://missmustardseedmilkpaint.com/colours. Not a fan of the artissimo (or was it flow blue). However put me in front of a screen of lovely colours like that and I want them all! 🙂 well, mustard seed yellow, outback petticoat, lucketts green, boxwood, dried lavender, schloss, trophy, Layla’s mint… 😉

    Good luck! And yes, I hope for the results photos.

  12. Kim

    I love the cement tile pattern with the dark gray hearth – that’s my personal fave! 🙂 I also LOVE the sound, look, and smell of a real fire. We had a real fireplace at our old house and we used it a lot for the first few years. But then our son was born with some asthma and we had to stop as it irritated his lungs too much. We looked at having it converted to gas, and if we had stayed we would have done that (to the tune of about $5k!) but we moved so put in a gas fireplace at our new house. I miss the old wood burning fireplace but I also enjoy just flipping that switch :)) And my son breathes better, so….that’s good, too! Ha! 🙂
    Can’t wait to see what she chooses to do!

  13. Pam

    Such good choices! My very favorite is the last one, with marble instead of brick and dark gray tile on floor.

  14. Barbara Q

    Danielle was discussing your input with me yesterday. I love the marble but woukd probably do the dark gray solid floor and use heat resistant paint inside.
    I love a real fireplace with the crackling of dry wood and the sound of the roaring fire. It is not so appealing to turn on a gas fire.
    Great ideas.

  15. Jessica | Petal + Ply

    I like the marble but paired with one of the concrete coated hearths. The solid coat of concrete flows and keeps the eyes moving whereas the tile base drags your attention and creates a blunt line between the hearth and fireplace. 🙂 Whatever you choose Danielle, I’m sure it will look great!

  16. Shannon

    My favorite is the mini subway tile with the dark grey hearth. Danielle, love the style of the house and the woodwork. I love homes from that era and my husband and I actually did everything within our power (and our budget) when building our house to get the look that you already have. Very jealous of your lovely home.

  17. Kim U

    I love the marble and would love to see it with the dark grey hearth-instead of the tiled look!

    I also REALLY love the books with the exposed pages (definitely going to share that idea!).

    K

  18. B. Folk

    Hi, Danielle, one thing to think about: you mentioned power outages. If the power goes out, how would you be able to light a gas fireplace? Unless, you have propane? I lived in an area where we (more than once) lost both electric and gas! A real fireplace comes in handy under those circumstances:-)
    Layla’s idea to paint the cabinet is good. I like the last three pics the best…

    • Dianne M.

      I vote for the Marble with the Dark Grey hearth. Marble would pair beautifully with the stained wood mantle! We had a gas fireplace and converted to wood. I’m sensitive to smells and though there were no leaks there was still a slight unpleasant smell. Nothing compares to coming home and relaxing by a real wood fire! I used to be afraid to light it…now it has become second nature. You’re a purist, you’ll love it!

  20. Lauren

    Ooo now this looks like a fun project! I LOVE that marble, but I think my fave is those fun & geometric cement tiles.

    Can’t wait to see!!

  21. hello haha narf

    layla, that cabinet going blue changed my whole never paint wood stance! please let us know what color / brand that blue might be!