To brick up a fireplace opening!

[Advocodo]

Having our house refurbished. Have removed our gas fireplace and oak wood surround intending to look at alternatives such as imitation fires and a limestone surround thereby giving us more furniture wood choices.
Hubby has today said we can brick up the fireplace as we were very disinterested in looking for a replacement.. Before he suggested this I had just started looking for ideas of what to decorate the fireplace with ie candles, wine rack, plant etc. However what I am wondering is why do not more people brick up disused fireplaces rather than spend endless time trying to come up with ideas to fill them with.

Risk of damp.

You would have to put an air brick in - and a bricked up fireplace just looks a bit sad

Hubby has just said we will have an air brick. It’s a late 70s Georgian style.

Because fireplaces reflect the original design
Bricked up openings are horrible
An original fireplaces creates a focus in the room
Air bricks are ugly

Really appreciate all the replies. We are going for a very modern minimalist look. Thinking I could put a sideboard in front of the bricked up fireplace (which will be plastered over and painted) to hide the air bricks.

I'm all in favour of keeping a fireplace where possible as it's an instant focal point in a room. However, as this is a fairly modern house, I believe it's less of an issue.

Is there a chimney breast @Advocodo or just a flat expanse of wall? If there is no chimney breast, it will work better imo.

But then you are just blocking the air brick.

If you do block it make sure you also block the top. Otherwise you'll have a dead bird in it with no way of clearing it.

You have to let the air flow through or block it up properly - there is probably some professional you can speak to about it, I don't know which kind though.

Thanks so much for your thoughts. There is a chimney breast. We never used the gas fire as it didn’t throw out much heat and also our house is very warm. Had a very quick look at imitation fire places online and just couldn’t get any enthusiasm at all. We are having the whole house refurbished so there are so many other things to choose; this just seems one thing too many.

Thank you for your input. It is very much appreciated. It was our builder who suggested bricking it up. I will check further especially at the thought of a dead bird.

Thank you so much for your comments. I do need to investigate this more!!

You need to block the stack at the top. Allowing airflow though. Or you’ll be sitting in your room listening to dying birds in the blocked up chimney Brest.

I would say if there’s a chimney brest having it blocked up looks ‘a bit 🥴’. Apologies but as an architect I probably end up in more houses than most and it doesn’t look modern. It just looks botched and the sort of thing people did a lot 20 years ago but we’ve all moved on now

Why not keep the original open fireplace and cap the chimney internally on the horizontal. This, in my opinion, is far more modern.

hope you don’t read this as a criticism of your taste

@BertieBotts there's no need for professionals. It’s just an airbrick or rather a vent (for internal purposes) which you should never block with furniture.

Well exactly but then OP wanted to box it in which would defeat the point - hence I think professional advice would probably make sense if they want to completely block the old opening over.

You are absolutely right Bertie you can’t block the vent
but there’s no need for professional advice because there’s no other solution than the one we’ve both given

So no need to waste money on a professional. As we both know, it’s not that complex

I am really grateful for everyone’s replies. Think we will try and look at getting another fireplace 1st. Away from the house at the moment so can’t really visualise what it will look like.