Wednesday, July 16, 2014

A Tale of Three Fireplaces

About 18 months ago I blogged about the lovely Art Nouveau fireplaces that came with my house.  They were pretty but in a sorry state of disrepair with no hearths, missing fronts and totally unusable as fires.


Earlier this year I got the bit between my teeth and decided to tackle them.

I cut carpet back to reveal the original concrete hearths, filling in the cracks with fire cement.


I borrowed a mitre block and made wooden 'fenders' to edge them (and only sawed my finger once, on the very last one!).


I cut a vermiculite firebrick to size and fitted it where there was once only a hole in the dining room one.

I ordered 2 replacement fire fronts, once for the dining room and one for the study, and last week had the chimney swept for the dining room fireplace. Lots of debris and one dead pigeon were removed before finally the brush could come out.


And this is what the once sad fireplaces look like now - in my bedroom just the hearth was needed.


The study got a new fire front and hearth. I am really pleased with this one as it looks so pretty now.


And the dining room got a new fire front, hearth and back.


All the rooms look complete now and the fireplaces are loved again.  I will really enjoy being able to light the dining room one in the winter - although on such a hot day as this it's hard to imagine needing to!


7 comments:

Frances said...

Congratulations to you for that fabulous reclamation of three lovely hearths. I am very impressed at what you accomplished.

It is easy to see how you were inspired though. These features really are great.

Best wishes.

elaine said...

How lovely to have original fireplaces and well done you in their restoration they look magnifico!

Janneke said...

You restored these beautiful old fireplaces by yourself. It looks wonderful, you will have lovely winter evenings in front of them.

Anonymous said...

You do like to get stuck in don't you? You have made a marvellous job of those three, well done.

driftwood said...

wow, they look fabulous!

Gina said...

Well done, they look fabulous. I'm not sure I would have known where to start.

Annie Cholewa said...

Oh how lovely. I do wish we had an open fire here. Instead this house has a fancy Italian gas fire that looks a bit like a flat screen tv!