Can we talk about my fireplace?

[hamster]

Now that the addition is done, it really highlights how bad the rest of our house looks!

For the living room, we plan on removing the wood paneling (unless you tell me to just paint it, which is probably a safer choice since we have no idea what the asbestosy drywall looks like underneath). Also replace the carpet with LVP, and redo the trim. I also want to add built ins to either side of the fireplace.

But then there is the fireplace itself. It's the focal point of the living room, and we do use it 1-2x a day as our primary heating source. But it's fug, and I want a mantle. What are my options here?

I was thinking we could have the whole thing restoned, and they could make the physical fireplace opening smaller to avoid that giant black surround but H says it doesn't work that way.
I could paint or limestone it, but that doesn't fix the surround, there is still cracks in some of the mortar, and I cant figure out how to add a mantle.
We could also remove it entirely and switch to a freestanding woodstove, but that would be pretty expensive since the chimney is inside this monstrosity, not the exterior of the house.

[Susie]

I don't have any helpful suggestions on the actual surround, but I don't think you need to rip that paneling out.  I think it would be fine painted white.  You'll need to prep it well, and probably use oil based primer to cover the knots, but that's a one time project and then you're good to go.

Built-ins would look great alongside the fireplace.  The one thing that I think would make the biggest difference though is to find another place for the TV.  I understand the practical reasons why it's probably there, but it's not working for me.  Putting it into a built-in wouldn't change that.  It's that the two big black rectangles next to each other (TV and surround) are competing in size/scope and for attention on that wall.  The TV also kind of dwarfs the art over the fireplace.  I think if you moved the TV, the black around the fireplace would be more tolerable until you decide what to do.  

As far as the stone that's there, I don't think I would whitewash or paint it in your case.  Especially white.  It would make the black surround stand out more.  Plus, I have a big brick wall fireplace that I've been toying with whitewashing, but I keep hesitating mostly because our FP is woodburning and we actually use it, leaving some soot staining on the brick.  I think that would be worse on white.  You use yours even more than we do, so that would hold me back.

[mrsukyankee]

I actually like the brick. What I don't like is the black surround. I'd check into seeing if that could be changed (possibly doing a different stove or insert?). I agree that the wood panelling would look good painted white.

[hamster]

Hmm. That's a good point about soot. I hadn't thought about that bit. 

The surround is so big because it's covering the original fireplace hole. I was thinking of restoning so we could make that hole smaller, but H says you cant do that. 

We talked about moving the tv above the fireplace since we dont use it terribly often, but I'm not sure with the heat from the woodstove. If somebody else sees a place to put the tv, I'm all ears. 

[Susie]

I would put the TV on the wall perpendicular to the fireplace, above where you have the loveseat now.  It could either be on a shallow table or wall mounted.  Then I'd move that loveseat so it's facing the TV.  I'm not 100% sure how close to the window I'd pull it.  You might need to shift the kid area to the other corner, where the TV is now, but since they are symmetrical I'm guessing that would work ok.

That's pretty much how we have our family room arranged.  Ours is a little more square than yours, but we have not had a problem with window glare on the TV.

[hamster]

The beauty of buying the house from your MIL is you can dig through childhood photos to see what your house used to look like.

I found an old photo that shows an older woodstove, and the surround is not much smaller than current so unless somebody can physically make it smaller, the surround cant change.

It also appears there used to be wallpaper behind the paneling, and I'm assuming they did not remove that before putting the paneling up, so paint it is!

As far as the tv layout, moving the couch and tv would eliminate our view and cut off a walking path to the fireplace. The kid area unfortunately is sort of stuck in its current place - one of the bricks on the other side sticks out so the current shelving wont fit. We tried there originally.

[lessel]

Wild ideas here...

What about moving the TV to the corner over the playpen area and wallmount it with a bendy-arm (<-technical term)? So that the TV would be flat against the painted wall, but you could pull it out and angle it toward your current couch/loveseat configuration?

We had a wall-mount TV in our old house on a wall between eat-in-kitchen and living area and could pull the TV out on the arm and bend it toward whatever direction we wanted or tuck it back/flat against the wall if we weren't using it or were just playing streaming music on it or whatever.

If you want to do a smaller surround on the fireplace, I think you'd probably have to gut the whole thing and rebuild it from scratch. Seems $$$ but I don't know much about that. As-is, I think the stone is fine. I'd vote for painting the paneling--would kind of look like shiplap once painted, if that's your thing. I do love the idea of built-ins, but you might have to stick with lower ones vs. full-wall since you have the AC unit thinggie on the right.

I think you could do a mantel basically right above the surround to the top of the stone--sort of occupy that space. Maybe the surround wouldn't seem so big then? Just kind of like black fireplace hole area?

Maybe if you did shorter built-ins you could put black hardware on them and then it would kind of bring in the black on the fireplace surround. Maybe also consider some kind of black finish on the flat front of the fireplace so it disguises the dust and stuff?

[mrsukyankee]

I'd like to know why you can't have the original opening...that's what most fireplaces have. And then you can buy a stove or an insert that actually fits better in the opening.

For example -

[carmenere]

I think the wood paneling would look fine painted, and you can spackle and sand the knots to make it look smoother. Or you could install drywall over the paneling. If you can, I would take off the surround and the door and replace it with something more modern, maybe something like this:
www.wayfair.com/home-improvement/pdp/pleasant-hearth-easton-prairie-cabinet-steel-fireplace-doors-psth1067.html

I don't think the stone itself looks bad. It's a nice, neutral color and I think it will look much less dated once you update the paneling, doors/surround and flooring. Just choose tones that compliment the stone.

[statgirl]

I agree—paint the paneling. I would call a fireplace fabricator and ask for a consultation. Our chimney top blew off taking the pipe with it in a hurricane and we had to have the chimney parts custom fabricated (or tear out the whole fireplace) to fix. They came and gave us a quote and told us what else had to be done for safety inside the fireplace (since the pipe ripping out also damaged the items it was connected to). They charged $75 but if we went with them, it was applied towards the final cost. It made our decisions easier since we knew the possibilities then rather than guessing at what could happen (aka, a certain family member’s pessimistic attitude towards the whole thing where the only solution was to tear out the wall and rebuild it). My IL’s also put in a wood stove and just sealed the top of the chimney except where the pipe goes out so it looks like a chimney from outside but is a wood stove inside. The chimney box is empty inside and gives them an extra few square feet where the wood stove now sits.

[hamster]

Ok. I'll start by painting and see where that gets me. You're right, the brick may look better not against the paneling.

So, how do I do it? Do I have to sand, or can I just put on a quality primer? Would you paint it white, or the same color as the walls?

As far as the mantle, do you think I could mount one where the brick and wood meet up? I really, really want a mantle damnit.

[memenee]

As for painting, I would do white - not a super stark white though. And I would do the white the paneling flanking the fireplace. For the paneling above the fireplace I would do your existing wall color but darkened by 50%. I think that would look nice and also help offset the black on the fireplace.

Good luck! I think it will look great.

And once you have painted you can move on the next step and figure out the mantle.

[Susie]

Do you have white trim anywhere else in your house? (I see that the baseboard molding is not white.) If you do, I'd use the same white, same sheen on the paneling. In my house that would be SW Alabaster in semi-gloss. I've used the same paint on white bookcases, white wainscoting, doors, and trim in our house.

I would sand first, then prime.  Be prepared for it to take 2-3 coats of paint after the primer.  Our house used to have dark stained trim, and it takes me sanding, a coat of primer, and then 3 coats of semi-gloss to completely cover it.

[orval]

Have you looked at the thread below about the lime wash fireplace? It has a similar feel to what you are trying to do - with painted wood and built ins, I think. You could whitewash your limestone? Add the mantle like they have above the brick/stone.
They just have a regular hole for logs for the fireplace not a wood stove. Is there a way just to take of the black flat surround and see what is behind there? It looks like a seperate piece. You could do like the photo above with just the stove and no surround, if that makes sense.

[carmenere]

I’m a fan of Sherwin Williams Extreme Bond primer. You shouldn’t need to sand. A warm white or greige would look nice. Personally I would paint the whole room the same color.

I’ve been thinking a lot about mantels lately and we have a similar brick and panel situation. Is the front of the paneling flush with the brick? You would have to mount onto either the wood or the brick, and you could probably get it to cover the line. If you mount it on the wood it would probably need to be lightweight (like, not a slab of solid wood). Mounting onto the brick might provide more stability and bear more weight but I wouldn’t be brave enough to DIY that.

[dr.girlfriend]

I love my painted paneling now that it's done, but it was a PITA to do right (you need shellac-based primer so sap doesn't leak through) so I would hire it out if possible. I gave up halfway and the painters did a much better job than I would have been able to. Mine is Benjamin Moore's Sand Dollar and I love it. I think once the paneling is whitish you might end up liking the brick and black surround, but if not you could change those up later -- whitewash the brick and potentially paint the surround.

[hamster]

We do have white trim elsewhere, and the goal is to get it all to match. It's stark white though (which is my preference).

There is a small ledge at the top of the brick/bottom of the paneling, so a mantle would sit on top and get fixed into the paneling.

I did confirm with MIL there is wallpaper behind it, and she says the wood has a clear coat not a stain.

[Susie]

Jan 27, 2020 18:39:24 GMT -5 hamster said:

We do have white trim elsewhere, and the goal is to get it all to match. It's stark white though (which is my preference).

Then I think you either need to do the paneling in that same white, or you need to match it to the walls in the room (which you may or may not elect to repaint at the same time).  If you try to introduce another almost-same but not quite white color chosen just for this paneling, like a "warm white" or something, it will look really disjointed with the rest of the house.

[carmenere]

Jan 28, 2020 9:51:29 GMT -5 Susie said:

Jan 27, 2020 18:39:24 GMT -5 hamster said:

We do have white trim elsewhere, and the goal is to get it all to match. It's stark white though (which is my preference).

Then I think you either need to do the paneling in that same white, or you need to match it to the walls in the room (which you may or may not elect to repaint at the same time).  If you try to introduce another almost-same but not quite white color chosen just for this paneling, like a "warm white" or something, it will look really disjointed with the rest of the house.

I don’t think the trim needs to match the walls/paneling exactly, as long as it’s consistent throughout the house. The purpose of trim is to stand out a little to create depth. Here’s a warm white wall with pure white trim:



But yes, for the love of everything, try to keep the trim consistent with the rest of the house. Our house has different colored trim in different rooms and it’s awful.

[dr.girlfriend]

Jan 28, 2020 11:11:49 GMT -5 carmenere said:

Jan 28, 2020 9:51:29 GMT -5 Susie said:

Then I think you either need to do the paneling in that same white, or you need to match it to the walls in the room (which you may or may not elect to repaint at the same time).  If you try to introduce another almost-same but not quite white color chosen just for this paneling, like a "warm white" or something, it will look really disjointed with the rest of the house.

I don’t think the trim needs to match the walls/paneling exactly, as long as it’s consistent throughout the house. The purpose of trim is to stand out a little to create depth. Here’s a warm white wall with pure white trim:



But yes, for the love of everything, try to keep the trim consistent with the rest of the house. Our house has different colored trim in different rooms and it’s awful.

I agree...it's hard to tell from pictures but the ceiling trim in the room with Sand Dollar is a brighter white, and all the rest of the trim in the house is a bright white.  I treat the Sand Dollar as a wall "color" even though it's a white.

[Deleted]

I like the paneling and think that it would look great painted white. The stacked stone fireplace however, has got to go. What about ripping that out and then doing a solid one-piece surround or tile and adding some additional wordworking around it, including a mantle, something like this: