Hi everyone - came to this site looking for some ideas on how to remodel my fireplace and stumbled upon these forums. What a great resource.
I was hoping some of you could give me some ideas or tips for a fireplace refacing I want to do. I posted a photo of the fireplace as it is below. My first inclination was try to strip that white paint off the bricks but after researching around, this just doesn't seem like a viable option. Besides, once I started seeing some other fireplace projects, I started getting some other ideas.
The way I look at it - I could go two different ways with this: a) Complete redesign - take down and replace the mantle, retile the whole thing with a new mantle, doors, etc. Or.. b) leave most of it as-is and just tile over the bricks and possibly the mantle.
I am leaning more towards option (b) because I'm a new home-owner and this would be my first real DIY home improvement project and also for $$$ reasons. I don't want to take on more than I can handle.
I'm not sure what kind of material this mantle is. It is completely solid and feels to me like stone underneath. I would like to replace it if that were feasible as it's kind of a boring rectangle shape. It seems incredibly heavy and attached to the wall though. Is it possible to just tile over this as well?
I was thinking of doing some neutral-color, larger tiles on top of the bricks, and then some small colorful mosaic type tiles to cover the mantle.
Also as far as the floor (hearth?) - it is some kind of red floor tile now which I don't hate. But if I wanted to try to raise it with some kind of stone on top, would I have to raise the fireplace floor as well? This seems like it might be "out of my league" as well.
Thanks everyone for your help!
H
(Excuse the bad quality photo - I took it quickly on my way to work)
I was hoping some of you could give me some ideas or tips for a fireplace refacing I want to do. I posted a photo of the fireplace as it is below. My first inclination was try to strip that white paint off the bricks but after researching around, this just doesn't seem like a viable option. Besides, once I started seeing some other fireplace projects, I started getting some other ideas.
The way I look at it - I could go two different ways with this: a) Complete redesign - take down and replace the mantle, retile the whole thing with a new mantle, doors, etc. Or.. b) leave most of it as-is and just tile over the bricks and possibly the mantle.
I am leaning more towards option (b) because I'm a new home-owner and this would be my first real DIY home improvement project and also for $$$ reasons. I don't want to take on more than I can handle.
I'm not sure what kind of material this mantle is. It is completely solid and feels to me like stone underneath. I would like to replace it if that were feasible as it's kind of a boring rectangle shape. It seems incredibly heavy and attached to the wall though. Is it possible to just tile over this as well?
I was thinking of doing some neutral-color, larger tiles on top of the bricks, and then some small colorful mosaic type tiles to cover the mantle.
Also as far as the floor (hearth?) - it is some kind of red floor tile now which I don't hate. But if I wanted to try to raise it with some kind of stone on top, would I have to raise the fireplace floor as well? This seems like it might be "out of my league" as well.
Thanks everyone for your help!
H
(Excuse the bad quality photo - I took it quickly on my way to work)