What sort of fireplace for our modern house?

[Liiinoo]

We live in a newish property, nearly ten years old. When we moved in the developers had included a coal effect gas fire and limestone mantelpiece. A few years ago we had the gas fire replaced with a cream enamel log burner which we use often in the colder months.

We now want to replace the mantelpiece and hearth because limestone is porous so very hard to keep looking clean when combined with smoke and ash. I would also like a deeper hearthstone to protest the new carpet we are planning. What would people recommend to replace it? I don't like the idea of wood, but could be convinced if someone showed me something gorgeous. I really like the Edwardian metal fire surrounds with inset tiles but think that would be too heavy looking for a modern home.

Ours new house is 1950s but has been done quite modern inside. This is ours- our builder said the brick can be plasters over which I think we may do, but I do like the simplicity of the brick and beam (although hate the orange bricks!)
Excuse the mess!!

That's really nice.

To be honest it's growing on me, I hated it at first. I definitely want to strip the varnish off the beam and leave it more natural, but the brick I'm not sure about.
With a modern house like you describe, I think the key is simple, unfussy, rather than some of the ornate Victorian style ones.

Not sure if this will be of any help, but we have had a stove in our fireplace for 19yrs(put in on the day of Princess Diana's funeral, so remember well how long we've had it!) and our surround was a pine(yuck now, but fine in the late 80's!) one. I was debating replacing it with some sort of stone one this year, but was afraid of making an expensive mistake-which, reading your comment about the problem keeping your limestone one clean, is another problem I hadn't even considered!- so decided to get it painted instead, to see if a lighter look would be okay, before changing it. Maybe a more modern wooden one (the insert thingy in ours is an original, which is why it's still there, though I'm sorely tempted to get replace the tiles at some stage!) that you'd have an option to paint later if you get bored with it, might be an option?

Slate?

I do love a tiled fireplace but it doesn't have to be fussy.

Do you need a surround at all? You can just render and paint the inside of the hole. That's what we have. Means you don't have a mantelpiece but they are a bit of a magnet for tat I always think!

We have a chunk of aged type oak above, with hearth made of fake slate tiles - they said slate scratches really easily so we went with that. The cavity is heat proof board stuff, just looks like render.

We're going for a black honed granite hearth (looks a bit like slate but doesn't scratch) and are also not having any surround or mantelpiece, at least to start with. We might have something added later though and we have a black wood burner rather than enamel.

We're going for a black honed granite hearth (looks a bit like slate but doesn't scratch) and are also not having any surround or mantelpiece, at least to start with. We might have something added later though and we have a black wood burner rather than enamel.

Most of the people we know with modern homes & woodburners don't have a surround. The burner sits in a slightly larger hole than your, walls on chimney are smooth plaster & then a wood mantle attatched above or nothing at all.

We are just about to have a gas stove fitted , we are going for a fairly modern looking one ( black) , and as the pp said are just having it in a plastered hole with a smallish hearth , no surround or mantle so quite minimalist - can't wait .