What drink has done this to my fireplace?

[TreesWelliesKnees]

Adult DS had a small gathering of his usually thoughtful, lovely friends last night. This morning I have discovered this on my dark marble mantelpiece. It looks bleached! Any ideas on what might have caused it? As far as I can tell from the recycling bin they were drinking Pepsi, vodka, wine...

What are my options for dealing with it? I'm frankly not attached to the dark marble so if I find out what it is I'm tempted to do it all over!

My FIL did it to ours with a cup of tea which he forgot to drink. I always thought it was down to the bottom being wet. Never did find a way of getting rid of it.

That's not what I was hoping to hear! Oh dear. Did you stick a vase over the top or something?

anything acidic would do that to marble.

Hmm, maybe the Pepsi then?

My guess is a combo of Pepsi drips and trapped condensation under the can. My theory is the base of the can directs condensation drips to the outer edges of the can and that looks like where the worst of damage is. Other glasses and bottles have a flatter shape, so I would guess that they would produce damage that is more uniform across the diameter of the circle.

Advanced sleuthing - thank you! I have discovered cans of lemonade now so I reckon it was that as the Pepsi was in large bottles. So now I'm wondering whether to attempt to fix it or whether to spray my whole fireplace with lemonade to lighten it up!

@TreesWelliesKnees 🤣. I’ve no idea if that would produce a uniform effect …. Maybe aim for a tie dye result and call it progressive art?!

😂 I might just stick a coaster on top and try to forget about it. Maybe I'll put ten coasters on there and hope they get the hint!

Make a paste of baking soda and a small amount of water. Cover the stain, and then cover that with cling film. Leave it for 24 hours and wipe off.

*Please do this at your own risk. I have had it work in the past, but there are many variables to be able to say it would work for you also.

@TreesWelliesKnees decoupage!

I'll give that a go, thank you! Failing that, decoupage it is @Alphabet1spaghetti2 !

Here is what the baking soda did @HappiestSleeping ! Now what? I've screwed it completely, haven't I?

Now you’ve got to baking soda the whole thing 😅

Is that really marble - or just a paint effect?

Total eclipse!

You need to contact a magic man, you're just going to wreck it more. They will either know a solution or be able to paint over it to match the rest of your surface.

Whatever you do, it’s going to be a family story for years. One for the next wedding….

This is really interesting! As a pp said I wonder if what you’ve got is a paint effect. Looks like you might have black marble that’s been painted over in reddish brown (was very fashionable at one stage Victorian era)? Can you try scraping away at an unobtrusive spot? You may prefer the black!

Def don’t use acid all over though - if it is marble you’ll end up with it etched all over which just makes it dull and greyish.

@TreesWelliesKnees

I agree, it is looking like that isn't actually marble.

Is there a little patch on tge underside that you could rub with a bit of sandpaper to see what happens?

The plot thickens then... it is an Edwardian house and I would guess the fireplace is original. I will sand a bit on the side and see what happens. Photo to follow!

There is definitely a bit of black coming through where I've sanded, and the damp cloth I've wiped it with has a kind of reddish brown powder on it. It looks like it's not marble then? A fake all along! Which doesn't solve the problem of what next. Spray with bicarb and make it all black? Paint it? Hammer and crowbar?

Its too late now but I'd have lived with the ring, homes are for living in!

Seeing as you're not fixed on dark marble I'd get it repainted in a light marble effect

Well, the world is your oyster now OP, you can pick any colour you like to repaint it! You could take it back to black first and see how that looks. There may be some colour you like in your tiles or you can go for a wooden effect. Strange that it survived all these years with just a few scratches that you can see in your first photo. Are you brave enough to post a full photo of the fireplace?

I absolutely wish I had done this! The benefit of hindsight... I've created a lot of work that I could have avoided if I'd stuck a vase or a candle over the top. Sigh...

Yes, I think I'll strip it back to black and go from there.

A quick bit of google 'research' suggests it is slate, which was commonly painted by hand to look like marble. Who knew? There was me thinking I was preserving my original features...