Stone Fireplace Design on a Dime (or Two)
Fireplace design, like most home features, go through stages of popularity. In the sixties, builders created towers of real rocks surrounding fireplaces. Although the towering blocky rock look hasn’t made a full comeback in home buyer’s desires, stone fireplaces have become more desirable once again. The key today–a mantle to rest accessories upon.
If your current fireplace is the scourge of your home’s appearance, take heart. You now have more options than ever for giving your ugly mantel and surrounds a new air of charm and grace, including tile, copper, wood, stainless steel, precast concrete, stone, artificial stone, or faux paint and plasters. You can also use various combinations to create an even more dramatic look and feel. you’re limited only by your taste and budget.
If you want a relatively easy and simple solution, your local home improvement store can generally supply an all-wood mantel for around $200 or a complete kit that includes both the mantel and surrounds for $400 or less. That’s a comparatively small sum, but your choice of designs will be limited to what they have on hand or can order for you.
Your next choice is to have something custom designed and built, which will easily cost two to four times as much, although it will give you a unique fireplace that helps accomplish exactly the look you want and can afford. That is a viable option if you’re really trying to upgrade the entire look of your room, since a fireplace is generally the focal point of a living space.
You can save some money by hiring a contractor that specializes in faux surfaces to turn one form of material into something different. A skilled faux artist can do virtually anything, depending again upon your taste and budget, and their work guarantees that your fireplace will be unique, which is an added bonus, considering their work will generally be considerably less expensive than purchasing the materials they’ve imitated.
Another cost-saving bonus is that there is usually no demolition work required to add a faux finish. This can save thousands of dollars, as well as a significant amount of time and mess.
Precast concrete can also save quite a bit of expense, since it can be molded into many very attractive styles and shapes. Polyurethane is also enjoying an increasing popularity, since it can also be molded into many shapes and colors and is relatively easy to apply.
The bottom line: if your old fireplace has become a source of frustration to you, you don’t have to live with that frustration anymore. Remodeling fireplaces doesn’t have to be a huge project that involves lots of mess, time, and money. Take a look at the many choices now available to solve that problem. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Stone Fireplace on a Dime–Faux Art
Check out Evan’s website: Faux Finishes to see more interesting room art.
Faux Artists | Flip That House for Habitat for Humanity
Copyright © 2007 Jeanette J. Fisher
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