What would you do with this fireplace?

[Flora73]

I much prefer the look of a chimney breast with a mantelpiece, and probably a mirror over it. Could this be achieved with the fireplace I have? Or is it a sacrilege to get rid of this?

This is what I’d love, and what I have now. But I don’t want to ruin what is there already!

How will you ruin it? You don't have to remove any bricks. It's invisibly mounted.

But you wouldn't ruin it if you did the same as us - our arched opening remained behind the battens and plasterboard/plaster and wallpaper, we just extended the battens downwards in the centre to square it off.

If the new owners (we sold in 2024) wanted to remove everything and go back to brick, they easily could.

I don’t understand why you would cover that fireplace up? It’s beautiful and perfect for an old cottage.

We have a brick fireplace, but not nice brick like yours, which has plaster over the top. When we took out our back boiler and put in our evil wood burner, we used a mantle piece my dad made us for our previous house, which didn't have a fireplace, so we could create a focal point. We have just attached it to the wall with mirror fixings. We kept the original brick at the back, but the sides were in a bad state where we took out the old pipe work, so I painted black heat proof paint which has covered up the repairs we did. We are very happy with it and we have a nice deep mantle shelf for all my candles and frippery

i think it’s lovely and would just add a slate hearth to balance it out

Mine is like the second but absolutely keep your it’s lovely.

Agree
Previous owners of ours covered up the brick walls around fireplaces and we just removed it all
No damage at all because there was no fixing into the original brickwork.

What do you mean by batten out?

You can't attach plasterboard to bricks, you need to batten out

@Flora73 , attach battens to the chimney breast. then attach plasterboard to the battens. Like a stud partition but on the chimney wall.

I would either:
leave it - its lovely
batten and plasterboard/skim/paint
Batten/ board/ skim and add a reclaimed tall surround

like this

Yes @Flora73, what @UpMyself and @justasking111 said!

Something like this?

Timber frame then plasterboard over

@Flora73
google for YouTube videos

You can dot and dab and then plasterboard
it’s cheaper and uses up slightly less floor space
but you’d have to fix through to the masonry to support a mantle

@Flora73 images of dot and dab method and I’m sure someone’s YouTubed that process too, it’s quite normal

I would plaster it down to the arched double row of bricks and leave that visible and also leave the bricks behind it visible. Then get some nice slate, maybe wood edged below (or around the feet of stove) and over the brown tiles then add a nice brush, antique shovel, brass tongs or other attractive things to pretty it up. Candles and pot plant in the summer or if not in use.

I would leave as it is. I really like it.

Personally, I would plaster the walls but leave the archway bricks showing. It's more of a rustic look in keeping with the wood burner, and I think a mantelpiece might be a bit jarring style-wise.

But it's your house, so up to you. Just don't rush into it!