What would you do with this fireplace?

[Lemonylemony]

Apologies for the quality of the photo it’s a close-up/crop from the estate agent’s particulars.

1930s house, large light room, south facing. I love the dado rail and we’ll probably paint below the rail a bright, bold colour (I’m gunning for a zingy aqua/light turquoise/cyan(!) shade, or maybe a mid green, DP yet to be convinced ) & keep above the rail white. This fireplace though..... I quite like the wood surround - think it will co-ordinate nicely with the dark wood piano - but the cream coloured marbley stuff and the fire itself is just not to my taste. Just not the focal point I want in the main room.

What would you do to it? What would you have here? Looking for inspiration!

Have u got Pinterest? Great for looking at similar photos, you can see what other others have done to theirs. You can save the photos in folders, especially useful for showing husbands that don’t have the vision, and keeping your ideas all together.

Yes have tonnes of Pinterest boards. But fireplaces stump me a bit. I look at 1930s architectural salvage sites because it makes sense to go with the style of the property, but then most of them seem to be cream/brown tiles which I dislike. Or keep the surround (well save it and replace it) but knock the fireplace out and put a modern woodburner in. I don’t know.

Just paint it white.

I would put in some patterned tiles. Give me a moment and I’ll post a pic of my fireplace.

Like this type of thing?

Don’t like the dark wood or the marble or the dado rail. I think it should be 3/4 up the wall and be a picture rail? That looks like something the current owner has added in.

Mine looks very similar!
I took out the fire (in my case it was a back boiler and required a heating engineer to do it)
I have put an electric plug in 'woodburner' in the hole, and painted the wooden surround white. I hated the marble too, but actually now that the rest of the room has been brought up to date around it it looks nice, and not so dated at all

I would do something like this.

Have a look at Jes Rose vinyl on Instagram - lots of ideas there including people that have used her vinyl to cover up fireplace surrounds.

Your fireplace is beautiful Cbatothink and I love how it’s dressed with the candles esp in the wine bottles. But is it more Victorian/Edwardian than 1930s? Maybe that’s ok I don’t know. I feel like it either needs to be ‘authentic’ or modern.

Love those patterned tiles Wewearpink. Maybe esp with a woodburner in it! I grew up with an open fire and love them but I think burners are more efficient no?

Coming round to white wood surround though.

DP says no to everything and likes the marble. No class.

Paint it white - put a woodburner in it. They are ace - just get it fitted properly be a HETAS person and buy a modern efficient one. And only burn kiln dried wood.

Op, thank you for your kind words about the candles in wine bottles. Each one is a bottle we have shared on our wedding anniversary so they have special meaning to us.

I know exactly what you mean about the need to be authentic. Maybe you could look on Pinterest for tiles in 1930s styled homes for inspiration? I do think a pattern could look a lot nicer than the cream marble effect ones in there currently.

OP I bought a house with an identical fireplace. The gold surround was glued on and fell off, the wood was a coated plywood. We ripped the whole thing out and bricked up the fireplace.

Personally not a fan of the rails. I find them quite 90's and imagine them in a room with sponge stencilling.

I like the idea of a white painted fireplace. Then some nice fired earth tiles would be lovely. I would make them the feature and remove the dado rail altogether.

I find them quite 90's and imagine them in a room with sponge stencilling.
Proper lol - you should see the rest of the house

I quite like dado rails, picture rails etc. Where I live now is 1930s and every room apart from kitchen & bathroom has original picture rails and I really like the feel the rooms have.

It looks almost exactly like ours, and we live in a 90s bungalow ! Are you sure it's original ? If you dislike it, I should imagine it wouldn't be too hard to remove . We are politely ignoring ours until we get round to changing it.

Oh no I don’t think it’s original 1930s. I think someone thought this looked nice at some point. Current owners bought in 1990, maybe it was them.

I think 1930s fireplaces are due a revival. Cheap to pick up at moment but not for long. I'd be tempted to find a nice one, get that put in with a woodburner.

My issue with them is the colour rather than the shape/style - all the ones I’ve seen on salvage sites are like that first photo, cream/brown tiles and I really hate those colours!

More research needed. They did colour in the 1930s right?!?

I know what you mean.....www.pinterest.com/gwcartgroup/1930s-fireplaces/

Another site for inspiration www.britainsheritage.co.uk/antique-fireplaces/2/1930-art-deco-fireplaces.htm

I love fireplaces from that era and found a shop/manufacturer that makes reproductions. Lots of tile options so you wouldn't have to go for brown, and they also make inserts and wooden mantels that would be very appropriate for a 30s house. They make to order so I'm sure they'd come up with an insert to fit the mantel you already have, if you wanted to keep it.

I visited their showroom and workshop a few months ago and the fireplaces they make are beautiful, even better than they look online.

www.c20fireplaces.co.uk/rfpi

www.c20fireplaces.co.uk/rfpc

I quite like the Britain's Heritage site as well, but they seem to have far fewer options for complete tiled fireplaces, which is my preference. Also much further away from me for having a look round.

Ooh if I went for something along these lines I could pretend we were part of the floo network/an outpost of the Ministry of Magic!