For those with original fireplaces in bedrooms...

[neepsandtatties]

....do you have a hearth?

The original victorian fireplace for our bedroom had been removed, and we have just bought matching one from a reclamation yard to replace it. It's a small, cast iron, typical bedroom fireplace, in a 11 ft x 10 ft room.

I'm torn over whether to have a hearth. Problem being that it is a small room and the hearth will eat into the room. If we don't we will have carpet right into the recess under the grate.

What do other people have?

1930s house, and yes, we have original bedroom fireplaces, with their matching tiled hearths, flush with the floor. The carpet is cut-out to show it, and edged with metal carpet trim. Obviously this wouldn't be very safe, but neither fireplace is operational... They're just there to look pretty.

I rather agree that a raised hearth would be a bit irritating in a bedroom, where, presumably it's only going to be for show, but the narrow flush hearth really isn't a problem at all. Could you consider something similar to dress your fireplace... Maybe just 20 cm wide, in some really gorgeous encaustic tiles?

no, only the fugly 60s tiled one in the other bedroom has one. I always stub my toe on it and it will be going when we redecorate the room next year.

Ours have no hearth - carpet right in underneath. A hearth would be nice I guess but we are never going to use those fireplaces so it's fine.

We have a small tiled hearth, original - although the fireplace itself is a modern reproduction. The carpet is cut out round the hearth, you just walk over it. However, the fireplace is not functional, as the hearth doesn't meet current building regs for open fires.

carpet here too - I know i won't use them so seemed pointless

Narrow tiled hearth in one room. Floorboards in the other. Both fine - agree with pp it's the raised hearth you want to avoid.

Yes, we would go for flush with the carpet. And we would never light the fire so it doesn't need to be big. But it's more that it would 'eat' into what is a fairly small room and ever so slightly reduce the 'walk around the bed space' at the bottom of the bed.

Hmm. What materials do those who have flush hearths have. Tiles?

Another with small tiled hearths here.

Original fireplace and no hearth here. Happy as it is as dowsnairs hearths produce a lot of wind!

our hearth is the same level as the floorboards so not raised, they just look like flag stones in the floor but we haven't disturbed the floor boards around them so no idea if that's all they are.

Exactly what you have and we went for carpet into the recess - no hearth . Worked well .

All of our bedrooms ones are original victorian cast iron /marble fireplaces carpeted into the hearth. Looks fine and no on the night tie stubbings.
All our downstairs ones have tiled hearths with fenders at the carpet edge.

No hearth here in a turn of the century house. The chimney sweep showed me a flap on all the fireplaces (we have 3) which you can close to stop things coming back down the chimney. Means very little problem even with a light coloured carpet.

Enjoy, we're moving and I'm going to miss my lovely fireplaces in each room!!

I have hearths.

we have fireplaces in every bedroom and no hearths in any of them, just carpet right under to the fireplace. I'm off now to investigate what is under the carpets...

I use my upstairs front bedroom as a study, and it's lovely to burn a fire in there in the winter.

The cast iron fireplace was painted with white gloss, with carpet right up to it. I stripped the paint off, and then sprayed it again with a special stove paint, which made it look like new. The icky brown carpet went, and underneath was a slab of poured concrete for a hearth and some floorboards. I tiled over the original concrete myself with some very small grey-blue slate tiles, then had an engineered wood floor fitted. The hearth is slightly lower than the floor, which stops me stubbing toes etc. and looks good.

I just had carpet in my last house. It was still cold and windy. I ended up stuffing scrunched up newspaper up the chimney to stop the breeze - no fires ever lit in any of the fireplaces, obviously.

Hearths, all raised up so a toe stubbing nightmare but we have deep pile rugs up to them which come to the same height as the hearth so it's likely. Occasionally it happens, it's a pain as it tends to add new words to the DCs vocabulary.

1930s fireplace surrounds in our bedrooms, no raised hearth. Just the tiled fireplace surround and tiles on the floor but we have carpeted over them so right inside the fireplace space if that makes sense.