what stone for a hearth? not dark slate

[QueenBoudicea]

We're opening up the fireplace in preparation for a wood burner but can't decide on what stone to use for the hearth. I don't want dark slate and would prefer a creamier stone. The room is quite light so want to keep it that way.

If you've got a burner what hearth have you got?

It's a victorian cottage and quite traditionally decorated to give you a sense of the room.

I was thinking of some kind of creamy flagstone - any ideas?

I have slate, but it's quite light :). My other choice was encaustic tiles set into the floor, could you do that?

We also have a cream woodburner btw, not at all hard to keep clean.

Ooh off to google encaustic tiles!
I have seen a natural slate on the interweb but haven't seen anything in real life.

I like them but want a larger tile.

Where did you get your slate from?

Some really random little shop in North London. Can't quite remember where. I think you can put any old tile down though, my friends have some lovely vintage victorian ones in front of their stove.

I went to the local garden centre and bought 1 inch thick paving - ours is slate
but we have dark carpets as I'm allergic to "cream"

We've just put these on our hearth. Wood burner being installed today. They look great! Victorian house too.

www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/catrangetiles/victorian-tiles/victorian-gosford-tiles/victorian-donard-red-panel-tiles/19666/

They look lovely but prob too traditional for me.
V jealous that you will have a burner by the end of the day!

I might put some links up and I'd welcome your thoughts on them as I'm getting way too confused.

What do you think of these?

www.firedearth.com/tiles/tile-type/slate/pale-classic-18266

Or these?
m.toppstiles.co.uk/tprod4699/section1170/Prestige-Stone-Bottichino-Marble-Floor-Tile-61x406cm.html

Or these?
www.wellsreclamation.com/products/1153/rustic-slate-25mm-priced-per-m2

I like the last one as it will be the most forgiving of bits of gack falling out when you empty the tray
BUT
make sure you get to pick your own tiles so they are the colours you want

this is what I have ....
www.ruscrete.co.uk/store/product/7363/Slate-500x500-Copper/

being designed for gardens its pretty tough

What about marble or limestone
marble
Limestone
Some ideas here including yorkstone

We have bath limestone which looks lovely and even has some small fossils in it

We have very traditional bottle green tiles. Be careful with stone as it may mark with soot, etc

Thanks all - think I'm going to head off to a garden centre tomorrow. Fired earth won't let me handpick the tiles I want and weren't particularly helpful. Topps tiles man didn't seem to understand that I wanted stone (the fitters said we needed stone for building regs and must be at least 12mm deep)

You don't need stone, tiles are acceptable under building regs (probably just more hassle to install). You could look at quarry tiles, they do white? I'm not keen on the examples you gave, but it's really down to personal taste!

Olivia's right, it doesn't have to be stone: we run a stove company and use all sorts of non-combustible materials. Maybe bricks laid in a lovely herringbone pattern? You can get cream coloured ones or lovely handmade ones. If you do use tiles, make sure you lay them really well as stoves are very heavy and could crack the tiles over time - they'd be a bugger to replace. We use glass hearths a lot - usually on top of wooden floors so that it shows through but you could also get coloured glass like some people do for kitchen splash backs. As long as it's toughened it'll be fine. Or, if you want something really funky, you can get bespoke resin ones made in whatever funky colour combination you desire. If you do go for a light stone, get some stone sealant on it before the fitters come in then you needn't worry about marks.

We have large Yorkstone flags which are quite light - looks lovely.

Ooh - thank you for enlightening me about the tiles - that could give me more options.
I feel like it's such a big decision as once they're down they're going to stay there for the foreseeable future!

Bricks painted white?