Removing the fireplace

[JohnMiddleNameRedactedSwanson]

Not an important period feature, of course, but a perfectly inoffensive stone fireplace and gas fire in the sitting room of a 90s house. Totally ornamental and we have lit the fire once since we moved in six years ago. No chimney breast, just a flat wall.

Would we regret removing the fireplace and having the wall skimmed? It only protrudes about 40cm into the room but it would mean that we could reclaim a lot more than this. The telly would go where the fireplace is now, and the corner where the telly currently lives would become a reading corner, adding overall seating to the room.

Would you immediately notice a glaring omission if a sitting room in a reasonably modern house had no fireplace?

If it’s a gas fire where is the flue outlet? Personally I like having a fireplace as o focal point.
Having said that our previous house was designed with no fireplaces and we lived in it for 30 years! Maybe that’s why I now like fireplaces.

I would notice, I think it’s odd not to have a fireplace and make a tv the focal point in the room.

Out of interest, then, what do people in more modern houses have in their fireplaces?

Gas fires are so un-cosy with their blue flames and ours is a dreadful dust trap. I’d love a log burner but it would be inappropriate in suburbia and air quality is a concern. The electric fake fires which just glow are unspeakably naff. What’s left?

We took our fireplace out of our 1930s living room, with no regrets. We gained a bunch of space, we chased the wires for the TV into the wall so that the TV looks great, like a big picture. We had underfloor heating so had no need for a real or pretend source of other heat. We had no intention of using a real fire for the reasons you mention, ie indoor air pollution, plus the expense of putting in a real fire and buying and sourcing wood etc. Unless you have a particularly pretty vintage fireplace I think more people could do with ditching them for something more environmentally friendly.

We took our old gas fire out of the fireplace, stripped the breast down to the brickwork and are turning the fireplace and hearth into an Art Deco style bar and drinks cabinet using reclaimed rosewood, marble, agate and copper - which I’m sure sounds an unspeakably chavvy thing to have in your living room to Bodenesque MNers, but the house was built in 1920 so a reclaimed Victorian fireplace, whilst in fashion, would be out of keeping; and we don’t need anything there for heating purposes (and like you have no interest in electric fake flames.) We wanted to make a feature of the area, and this worked for us since we also have a lot of rare single malts and tequilas which look pretty in their bottles on show.

If you’re having a reading corner, could you turn the area into bespoke quirky book shelving? Build it into a feature rather than blank it out.

I would definitely remove the fireplace if it's just a dust trap gas fire and the room is warm - book shelf sounds like a great idea - I had a bedroom like that in a rental once, it gave the room real character.

Also just takes up space in an annoying way in the room if you leave it there.