What would you do with this fire place? (pic on profile)

[DrNortherner]

It's in our dining room, is currently painted white.

We are painting our dining room and are a bit stuck with what to do with this.

Do we paint it the same as the wall colour or make a feature of it?

What shall we put in the hole?

Thanks

god northerner you're gorgeous!

can you afford to rip out all the brick? if you can't just paint it to merge with the wall

On a budget I'm afraid. Knocking out will be too expensive.

Need to make the best of it!

I agree with tmmj, get rid of it. It will be much nicer.

Off to school now - back soon.

Knock it out if you can and if it won't mess up your flooring.

If not then consider having it boarded over. It would then look like part of the wall.

what colour are you painting the rest of the room? You could make that a feature wall with the fireplace central to that.

are you sure its too pricey? a builder would charge one day - say 200 quid? plus making the floor good.

otherwise, id keep white/cream - possibly a fired earth shade of something or other

Message withdrawn

Boarding it is a good idea......

Hmmm, thanks for suggesstions. Might get quote for knocking it out.

Any mor ideas as to what could go in the hole?

stack some logs

Like the log idea - yes. Think I will do that.

Where does one purchase logs I wonder?

B&Q or any DIY place
Or garden centres

You could easily knock it our yourself and then just get a plasterer in for half a day (probably) to skim it and neaten the hole.

Keep the big slates for putting inside the bottom.

Then you can stack it with logs, stick a mirror in the back, put candles in it etc.

We did similar, ours had been bricked and plastered over and I thought it looked bland with an ugly air vent in the front.

We put an IKEA floting shelf above the hole and painted the 3 walls that made up the fireplace much brighter colour than the rest of the room.

I knocked ours out myself - get yourself a hammer drill with a chisel attachment on the end - it's like cutting through butter! very easy. We then had a plasterer in for another job and he skimmed over it to make it good. We are going to put a plasma gas fire in it's place.

"get yourself a hammer drill with a chisel attachment on the end"

Dh and I are not DIY'ers. We'll just aboit manage teh painting!

believe me DrNorthener - I am no DIY expert. Never picked up a power tool in my life. But someone lent me the hammer drill and it took me about 1/2 hour!

We did ours with a sledge hammer and bolster - like a chisel for stone. My DH is the most useless DIYer in the world - I own the drill in our house - so I know what you mean.

Looking from the pics the fireplace is probably not tied into the wall but a single brick construction which is stuck on with mortar. It should just 'peel' off if you start from the top, placing the boulster between the wall and the slate topping/bricks.

You will need to wear dust masks if you do it.

Have mentioned teh idea to dh who recoiled in horror at the thought.

So looks liek we'll be painting it then, and putting logs in the hole.

if it is going to be so quick to knock out a builder might charge less - a half day - or include the plastering. well worth it and probably adds value

Will it add value?

Is it really that grim?

It looks fairly, erm, intrusive and perhaps a little dated?

I suppose it depends on how large the room is.

2 houses ago we had a fab one, made out of broken concrete paving slabs, stuck out 18-20" into the room went into both alcoves with little holes in for your knicknacks and all the way up to the ceiling in the middle - filled a whole skip with it.

So in the greater scheme of things yours isn't too bad!

Thanks for being honest. We didn't think it was that bad