Change the Face of Your Fireplace

Fireplaces are one of those immediate focal points in your home that can age it. Why is everyone afraid to update them? They get outdated just like kitchens and bathrooms do.

Here are some fireplaces from past clients that I have been able to manipulate for the better, meaning my clients are THRILLED with their "new" updated fireplaces....

1) With this client the wood was in good shape just faded and "dated"....

So we stained it a darker/richer color along with the paneling and built-ins. We also stoned the fireplace insert.

2) Look what a difference just painting red brick does...The architecture of the fireplace now really stands out instead of the color, so do those woods floors.

3) The brick was so outdated along with the yellow stained oak (from age).

So we covered up the brick with black granite tiles and painted the tired wood white so now the dental moldings really show up.

4) This Kiva (Bee Hive) fireplace just blended into my clients hearth room...

Nothing a little faux paint, glass tiles and metal medallions can't help with. We also flanked it with some sconces for more light.

5) This client had updated his fireplace about a year before I got there with some Carrera marble tiles, but the fireplace with those warm walls felt so "cold".

So it took some convincing but I got him to allow us to paint over the white with a dark yummy brown and retile the whole thing in a slate (which we used for the foyer of this house, right around the corner). Now it's a statement and oh yeah, it's "warm".

6) Dark and aged!

What a difference a little paint can make.

7) We updated this clients aged oak mantel and built-ins with white paint. My clients at the time hated their brass fireplace insert, and that was next....
But once we painted everything white, they ended up liking it, the brass was toned down and it worked with the other brass in the room.

8) This fireplace wasn't working as a very good focal point. It ended up eating a whole wall in the room and looked unloved.

Because of the shape of the room a flat screen was placed in it's perfect location, above the fireplace. We covered the tired brick hearth in slate tile. We also anchored that mantel which really helped ground it, by framing the fireplace.

When I update a fireplace, I still feel I need to be true to the design of the house, but these minor changes made a big difference don't you think?