What to do with black iron cast fireplace in master bedroom?

[toja555]

You probably think I am crazy but I want to remove it. The room is quite big with currently sky-blue wallpapers, but I intend to change colour to white-ish. The black iron cast fireplace does not suit my image of the light bedroom at all. My ideas:

1. To close fireplace completely and put bed on that wall
   
2. To change black iron cast surrounding to white marble arch surrounding, close the mouth of the fireplace, so that would be decorative item of the room.
   
3. Leave as it is because people value (?) fireplaces and it will increase the value of house when I sell (?)
   
   The problem I did not mention here is that although the room is big (standard master bedroom with two windows in Victorian terrace) there is a lack of wall space due to windows, fitted in wardrobe, fireplace. If I close the fireplace at least I could put bed there.
   
   Any advises welcome.

[SilentBob]

I'd be more inclined to rip fitted wardrobes out of a Victorian house, but that's just me. I would definitely not take out the fireplace- we have them in every room in our house (bar the kitchen and bathrooms) and they really are a selling point. I would still go white walls if you want, but put a few splashes of black in there- a throw or cushions for example- to tie it all together.

[LevitatingCopy]

I wouldn't remove it, they do add value.

If you can close it up without damaging it or removing anything then problem solved, the next occupants can uncover it if they want to.

We had a very pretty cast-iron one in our bedroom though which the previous occupants had completely painted in gloss white, it looked really nice. I don't think painting it would detract from the value as people probably won't be looking to have an open fire in the bedroom.

[Mammina]

can you not paint it?
we've just bought a property where they've ripped out the fireplaces which i'm gutted about & will replace them when i win the lottery

[LuluMaman]

we have a black cast iron fireplace in our bedroom, the surround is white though , it also has pretty flowery tiles around it, which lightens it. we have kept the rest of the room, which is quite large, very light and the fireplace looks lovely

what about a lovely decorative screen in front of it>

i would definitely leave it in

when we redecorate, if we ever do, we are going to pick out the pink of the flowers in the tiles, and make a feature wall of teh chimmney breast

[toja555]

Hmm.. I thought so. I mean that most will encourage to leave the fireplace. Here is the object: here

I do not think that black iron cast is paintable, is it? For me if it was white, i would love it more, but I can hardly imagine it in white gloss paint. Another option as I mentioned is to change surrounding to white marble style, but then what do I do with the opening which is black and has blue gloss tiles around (hate them... out of the picture..)

[toja555]

LuluMaman, what did you mean by decorative screen?

[LynetteScavo]

You are mad to want to rip it out. It looks like it was already taken out, stripped of paint and put back.

Leave it alone!

[SilentBob]

You can paint cast iron, yes- in fact one of ours in this house is painted white (not gloss- eggshell) but we didn't do it. I honestly think though, that black and white will look lovely together.

[LynetteScavo]

It is very paintable. If you must do something with it, paint it white.

[LevitatingCopy]

Is the surround cast iron as well? It should be easily paintable without spoiling it if you do want to go for white. It's hard to see much detail in the pic, unless I'm looking at the wrong one.

I think white walls and a black fireplace would look stunning in a nice big uncluttered room though.

[LuluMaman]

you can get fireguards to stop sparks from teh fire coming out anmd getting on the floor, they are usually metal/mesh

you can get instead a pretty, decorative guard, some made of stained glass, tapestry, silk screen fabric , that would make more of a pretty feature of teh fireplace

[missingtheaction]

a working fireplace in the bedroom - my dream! do you have a lovely furry rug in front of it? mmmmm....

[puffylovett]

Don't rip it out ! They add so much value. I scoured ebay when I redid my bedroom for a fireplace - bought one for a pound and reinstalled it.

Paint it instead.... although if you paint the walls pale, it will be a feature black, no ?

[SoupDragon]

Paint it white (it doesn't have to be gloss!), don't rip it out. Paint is reversible, ripping it out is not.

[SoupDragon]

Or, if you have to rip it out, can you relocate it in the living room in place of that wooden monstrosity?

[EyeballsintheSky]

We have one in our room, like silentbob we have fireplaces in every room except kitchen and bathroom. Ours is half the size of yours but it is as black as black can be. Our bedroom is various shades of brown and stone but I have left the fireplace as it is, didn't occur to me to paint it white. Definitely don't pull it out. Period properties with everything ripped out is so 1960's

[newspaperdelivery]

Leave it, and yes you can paint it no problem. But I would try make it a part of the room, as tastes change but the age and history of your property do not.

We have one in our playroom that was pink [!]that we stripped back to black and painted with stove black. The grate is filled with fairy lights and looks lovely on a chilly evening. The lounge is also black and the grate is filled with logs and fircones sprinkled with pot pourri oil.

If you are modern in taste you could fill it with glass balls [Christmas baubles that look like bubbes for example] or wooden balls etc. They are fairly widely available.

You could paint in matt white, many have done particulary in the early 1900's.

[toja555]

Thank you guys, really appreciated your responses. Not even surprisingly, nobody told to rip out the fireplace. I shall consider leaving it. Not exactly my thing but if its adds the value to the house, I don't mind. At the end of the day it is the easier thing for me to do

[vacaloca]

Ours was done before we moved in - the inside is black and the surround was painted white. It's all cast iron.

[toja555]

vacaloca, that is beatiful - though yours looks smaller than mine, maybe that is why? Is it white matt or white gloss?

[vacaloca]

White matt.

[vacaloca]

Here is another one - completely white.

[MrsMattie]

We painted a cast iron fireplace white (it's in our hallway). It has a pine surround which we also painted white. It looks pretty. very much like the pic above. Ours is an Edwardian house and I just felt it would be hideous to rip such a lovely old thing out...

[toja555]

vacaloca - lovely, but in the 2nd picture it does not look like the surrounding is cast iron (?). It would be easier to deal with wood, that's why one of the ideas was to replace to white marble surrounding. At the moment I am generating an idea to paint all bedroom in white or very light cocoa and then the fireplace wall in chocolate brown.. white fireplace in it would look adorable and the black one would be just "hidden". Although I have no idea how to paint black iron to white, uff.

[vacaloca]

the second one is all cast iron too. I've never had to paint it myself so I'm afraid I can't help there.