How can I make over my fireplace

[Mamaohana]

I’m hoping to re-decorate my living room as it’s currently ver dark and dull. As I’m on a limited budget and I don’t like getting rid of things which are still ok and I don’t feel right about getting rid of my fireplace completely. We inherited it with the house so it’s probably about 20 years old but I’ve seen the receipt from when it was installed and it was expensive and looks good quality. I’ve attached a pic of one almost identical but ours has darker inset tiles. What do your think? The house isn’t Victorian/Edwardian so it doesn’t necessary suit the style of the house although it doesn’t look completely out of place either. Would it be worth just changing the surround and inset tiles or would this be such a messy job we might as well go the whole hog and get completely brand new?

Could you remove the mantle? It might help you to lighten up the room.

I wouldn't change the inset tiles etc. But you could paint it white.

I have a surround like that in an upstairs room, this is an old listed building and I think someone added it at a later date to basically frame the hole in the wall. I really dislike the orangey wood and am tempted to paint it white, but know fundamentally it would be even more wrong in this house.

However if your home isn't of a given era, I'd paid the surround white, it will really brighten it up.

I’m wondering if I can remove the mantle/surround by myself. There are screws on the side which I could try and undo. Bit concerned I might rip the plaster off the wall in the process though. Once the surround is off that might allow me to get to the tiles. I can’t tell if they are just slotted in place and could therefore be lifted out or if they are more firmly fixed! If I could get the tiles out and replace with something more modern and get a lighter surround the same size, that would be perfect. Not sure how easy that would be though.

It is a million times better than my fireplace. I'd take the wood back to white I think.

I'd paint it white first and see what you think. It's not a big job and you might be surprised.

We painted our varnished mantle piece a farrow and ball colour and massively improved it

I also would paint the wooden part and see how it looks. I’ve painted 2 and was pleasantly surprised at results.

Painting is the easiest solution, by far. The other thing you could do, depending on how handy you are, is sand it back to the original pale wood. It's a dirty job and quite time consuming, but still easier than replacing.

First of all, I like it. But to do a make over I'd paint the surround with a matching grey to the hearth tiles. Although you say this isn't your actual fireplace.

I varnished my surround with a darker varnish as that was the theme. Made the job so much easier removing the surround whilst varnishing though.

Is it gas or electric, not that it matters I'm just being nosey.

The paint needs to be a colour that is ok with the tiles. So if tiles have a cream background, surround should be cream.
Have a look at chalk paint - you could paint it then use dark wax on it to make it more interesting - the pic gives an idea of this.

Thanks for the positivity, I was expecting lots of “rip it out and install a wood burner” type responses so I’m feeling better about keeping it. My tiles are much darker than in the example, black/green/orange and not flowery. I do really want to change them but I’m thinking that maybe they could be tiled over if they can’t be removed. The idea of painting the wood mantel is growing on me, it would be much easier than replacing and I don’t like it anyway do nothing to lose. It does have some quite intricately carved bits though so I’d need a bit of patience and time. Presumably I’d need to sand and prime before painting? And would any wood paint be ok? @vitalogy neither it’s an open fire!

Presumably I’d need to sand and prime before painting? And would any wood paint be ok? Yes, sand and prime. Wood paint's fine, although I just sanded down and used some left over floor varnish. Needed a few coats to get the shade I was after.

Oow lovely, that coal is very neat

Is that not your fireplace then?

No, you just need to give it a quick rub down with sanding paper, takes five mins, you just need to make sure the paint has something to key too.

Primer is up to you, all it does is really save an extra coat of paint. Depends on how good the paint you use is.