From Quaint to Classic

We always enjoy participating in Metamorphosis Monday, a blog party hosted by Susan from Between Naps on the Porch, because we get such great guests dropping by… welcome to DesignTies and a post on the transformation of my fireplace from quaint to classic!

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I still remember the day we first viewed our little working-man’s bungalow and the pleasure I felt when we walked in the front door and saw the original (1939) fireplace. It was so cute and quaint!

I know… it doesn’t make sense that I’d alter something that I liked upon first sight, does it?

The thing is, as cute and quaint as this original fireplace was it had it’s problems: the mantle wasn’t large enough, the hearth had been replaced with ugly porcelain tiles and we’d learned upon inspection that it wasn’t safe to use as a wood-burning fireplace.

Besides… we wanted to install a gas insert:

And as you can see from the photo above, a standard (i.e., not custom made) gas insert is much smaller then the original firebox. So we lifted the insert to the centre of the firebox with cinderblocks and planned a reface.

First, I set to work removing the horrible flesh-coloured porcelain tiles and then continued down into the cement bed… I wanted the hearth tiles I installed to be flush with the wood floor.

Next, my husband Brian cut and attached “durock”, or cement board, to the face of the fireplace… then I set to tiling the hearth.

We used a lovely multi-coloured slate called Desert Sand and I love it!

Next I was ready to tile the fireplace’s facade:

I love tiling!

Now we waited… for Bob at Finecraft Cabinetry to build our new mantle & surround. It’s not that Bob takes too long to build things, it’s just that it was Christmas time. :-) (FYI: Tile had been sealed, that’s why the colour is a little different from the pics above)

Soon into the new 2008 year, Bob had our mantle & surround installed… and it was well worth the wait!!

Here’s the final result

What do you think… better?

I hoped you liked this transformation! Now I encourage you to make your way back to Susan’s Between Naps on the Porch to check out other fun and fabulous metamorphoses!!

Victoria from Edin Interiors