My living room has a chimney breast which currently has a gas fire with those fake foam coals in, cream marble surround and hearth and an ornate plasticky fireplace. I’m not keen and want to remove it when we decorate in spring. The house is not a period house and we have never used the fire so I don’t see any point in spending a lot of money on something expensive like a log burner or real open fireplace.
The first idea i have had is to remove the whole thing, plaster and make the hole look good, buy an electric log burner and put it in the hole and put a nicer fireplace/mantel around (not sure of the correct names of all the different parts). I asssume this wouldn’t need a raised hearth, so I would get a bit more floor, would still have a mantel to decorate and have a mirror above and the log burner would look realistic enough as it would never be on.
The second is to remove the whole thing again, make the hole look good but then just put a load of candles in it. This would obviously be cheaper than buying a fake log burner just for show. I tend to have seen this look with a rustic shelf or beam above instead of a traditional fireplace, which I’m not so keen on, or just put inside a real but non-working fireplace, which I obviously don’t have. I don’t like country style or rustic things so Im not keen on the wooden beam look. Not sure how I could put a fireplace around that without it looking odd or whether the hole inside can be made bigger as I suspect it is quite small.
The alcoves either side are going to have built in cupboards/shelving in them so I don’t want the centre part to look stupidly small and insignificant in comparison. Any other ideas or pictures for inspiration?