Decorative Fireplace in Bedroom

[InEveryDreamHomeAHeartache]

I would like to put a decorative fireplace in the bedroom; partly to add some character to the room and also to sort of “anchor” a lovely oil painting above where it would go.

The chimney breast where I am planning to put it has been bricked up but you can see under the wallpaper an outline of where a previous fireplace was. There is also a small plastic vent/grille at the bottom of the wall.

I’ve been looking at cast iron fires with a wooden surround on eBay but would need to open up the fireplace again so it would fit in the recess. This would also cover up the vent/grille. I’m just wondering is this something easy that we could do ourselves? Does it matter if the vent/grille gets covered up?

The other alternative is just to get a wooden fireplace surround and just fix that to the wall but just wonder if that would look a bit odd? Or a wooden fireplace surround with a back panel painted in the same colour, where the “fire” would have gone.

Just wondered if anyone has done anything similar or can offer any advice? Many thanks.

Has it actually been bricked up, or just covered over? Most of them are fairly easy to restore.

In my first flat I did just stick a wooden fireplace on a wall and painted the “hole” black. It did give structure to the room and looked fine. Much nicer if you can bang out the hole though and restore the original shape.

Thanks for the replies. I’m fairly sure it has been bricked up as it feels like bricks, rather than a piece of wood or something, although as it’s been wallpapered over can’t be absolutely certain.

It’s reassuring to know that just a fire surround would look good but I think I agree with you butterfly that a proper fire and surround would look better.

I was just a bit wary of doing any permanent damage, as haven’t ever done this sort of thing before.

If you open up the fireplace and put a cast iron insert in you don't need to worry about a vent as the fireplace will be the vent. Definitely the nicer, but harder, option. This is a good guide to what's involved.

The vent is to prevent damp when a fireplace is bricked up or covered over. It is essential not to cover it up. However, like pp says, if you open up the fireplace - ie open up the entrance to the chimney - you will get rather more ventilation that way than you had with the vent!

We did it. Like you, we could see the outline in the plaster. It was quite a messy job and the wall around the opening had to be replastered. Nothing quite as scary as the pics in that link though.

It looks so much better.

Thanks MrsMackesy and coogee. Thanks for the link, that is really helpful, although some of the photos do look a bit alarming, but pleased to hear it can be done without it necessarily being so scary looking.

It just feels a bit daunting as have never done anything like that before.

We did it in our dining room in our previous house. We got a builder to open out the fireplace and fix a cast iron insert with attached mantlepiece. No plastering was required as the fire back covered any unsightliness. He also tiled in a hearth. The chimney stack had long been removed but we'd had airbricks put in so there was plenty of ventilation.