by Linda A Hammond
With cooler days and evenings, fireplaces will be appreciated again in many homes. Making sure your fireplaces's face is clean and ready for the season is as important as making sure the insides are clean and free of dangerous creosote. While the cleaning of the outside is more a decorative issue rather than a safety issue, it is what you see, so make it as attractive as possible.
I have seen many fireplaces in my business, and I am always surprised when I hear that a client hates the look of the fireplace. A fireplace is such a large element in a room and often a focal point. To hate it is to not enjoy the room to its fullest-- what a crime.
The national distrust of the contemplative temperament arises less from an innate Philistinism than from a suspicion of anything that cannot be counted, stuffed, framed or mounted over the fireplace in the den.
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
That said, if you don't like your fireplace, change it. Understandably, to change a fireplace facade can be a huge undertaking and expensive too, but remember if you "hate it", change it. To live with something that you dislike so much is to deny yourself a pleasant living experience.
The easiest thing to do is paint it. I know that this chore is a difficult one for some people; it is right up there with painting good wood; but again, if you dislike it so much that you can't enjoy the space, paint it.
Another solution is to reface the fireplace. Refacing is not nearly as easy, but still doable for the handy homeowner with some skills. Once you have framed it out and install cement board or drywall, you can use square or rectangle tiles, stone, stacked stone or textured concrete, to create the look you are after. You can remove the facade all together and purchase a cast stone fireplace for a new look as well.
At length, by mid-afternoon, after we had had two or three rainbows over the sea, the showers ceased, and the heavens gradually cleared up, though the wind still blowed as hard and the breakers ran as high as before. Keeping on, we soon after came to a charity-house, which we looked into to see how the shipwrecked mariners might fare. Far away in some desolate hollow by the seaside, just within the bank, stands a lonely building on piles driven into the sand, with a slight nail put through the staple, which a freezing man can bend, with some straw, perchance, on the floor on which he may lie, or which he may burn in the fireplace to keep him alive. Perhaps this hut has never been required to shelter a shipwrecked man, and the benevolent person who promised to inspect it annually, to see that the straw and matches are here, and that the boards will keep off the wind, has grown remiss and thinks that storms and shipwrecks are over; and this very night a perishing crew may pry open its door with their numbed fingers and leave half their number dead here by morning. When I thought what must be the condition of the families which alone would ever occupy or had occupied them, what must have been the tragedy of the winter evenings spent by human beings around their hearths, these houses, though they were meant for human dwellings, did not look cheerful to me. They appeared but a stage to the grave. The gulls flew around and screamed over them; the roar of the ocean in storms, and the lapse of its waves in calms, alone resounds through them, all dark and empty within, year in, year out, except, perchance, on one memorable night. Houses of entertainment for shipwrecked men! What kind of sailor’s homes were they?
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
Another idea is to spread drywall compound on the face of a brick fireplace and then, scrape some of it off, leaving some exposed brick, but mostly covering the "offending brick". This technique looks great in homes where the occupants want a hint of country, but not quite so much brick. Once you have achieved the look, you will need to seal it with a protective coating.
No fireplace? There are faux fireplaces on the market; just look at the home centers. If you have the wall space, you can easily install one for the look you desire. Most faux fireplaces will give off enough heat to warm a mid-sized room; but they are mostly for decor and a place to hang those holiday stockings.http://www.designsrefined.net Santa Clarita resident Linda Hammond, a certified member of the Interior Redecorators Network is an experienced decorator specializing in one-day room makeovers. My company, Designs Refined works with you in your home to economically achieve a comfortable environment for you and your family. I am also available for the design of professional and home offices.