SundayNewspaper

At Home in theNorthwest 9 Change the mantel Replacing an existing mantel or chim- ney piece, or adding one where there was previously none, can immediately change the character of a fireplace. A traditional fireplace can be made to look modern with the addition of a mantel composed of simple marble slabs, and a contemporary fireplace can be given a sense of age with a traditional wood mantel that has classical details. “Changing the mantel itself is not that big a deal,” Simonpietri said, noting that they can usually be pried off the wall like trim. “Essentially, you are left with walls that need to be healed. If you’re a handy person, it’s a do-it-yourself project.” Replacement mantels are widely avail- able at a range of prices, from home improvement stores like the Home Depot to specialty manufacturers like Chesneys. And reclaimed mantels can be found at architectural salvage stores like Big Reuse, Olde Good Things and Demolition Depot and Irreplaceable Artifacts. You can also build a customman- tel, like Vincent DiSalvo, a principal of DiSalvo Contracting in New York, frequently does for his clients. Installing a newmantel is fairly straightforward, DiSalvo said,“as long as you work within the parameters of code requirements,” and size it properly to fit the existing opening. Combustible materials — like a wood mantel —must be at least 6 inches back from the sides of a wood-burning firebox, he said, and “the horizontal piece that runs across the top of the firebox should be around 12 inches” above the opening, depending on how far the mantel projects off the wall. The resulting gap between the firebox and mantel creates another design op- portunity, he noted, and can be finished with distinctive ceramic tile or stone. Install a creative surround Of course, not every fireplace needs to be finished with a conventional mantel. There are countless creative alternatives. When Jayne renovated a house for clients in Oyster Bay, New York, he designed a tall box clad in Delft tiles to surround the fireplace. “Rather than just having a fireplace with a row of Delft tiles and a pretty 19th-century wood molding around it, we tried to modernize it and make it more contemporary,” he said. Sometimes, Jayne eliminates a ledge or shelf above the fireplace altogether, as he did in the library of an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. There, he removed the existing “pseudo Georgian Revival”mantel and clad the wall around the fireplace in colorful mosaic tile — a design loosely inspired by a fireplace in a dining room designed by StanfordWhite at Kingscote, a 19th-century house in Newport, Rhode Island. For a more monolithic appearance, a fireplace can be resurfaced in concrete or natural stone in the same way. If you use natural stone, though, choose a dark one, like slate, rather than a light one, like white marble, DiSalvo advised: “You want to select a stone that isn’t easily stained by soot. A darker-colored stone holds up better over time.” Or transform the whole wall Attacking the mantel or the area im- mediately around the fireplace some- times isn’t enough. In that case, the whole wall that houses the fireplace may need attention. When Shapeless Studio renovated a Brooklyn apartment that had an especially unappealing brick wall with a fireplace, they built a new wall with drywall in front of it, floor to ceiling, to conceal the entire expanse. That slightly reduced the footprint of the living room, but it created a cleaner look and the opportunity to add a beefy custom limestone mantel. The archi- tects also used the thickness of the new wall to create recessed storage nooks on either side of the fireplace. Linc Thelen, a Chicago-based de- signer, used a similar strategy to conceal a dated-looking rubble-stone feature wall with a fireplace when he renovated a house in rural Indiana. “We had to reframe it,”he said, because there was no other reasonable way to remove or conceal the stone. After adding cement board to the framing for a smooth surface, he installed a linear arrangement of buff-colored manufactured stone veneer fromEldorado Stone on top. “I wanted something that was minimal but also warm and modern,” he said. Building a second wall may seem somewhat extreme, but transforming the appearance of an unloved fireplace can pay big dividends. “The fireplace can help tie the whole house together,” Thelen said. “And it can say a lot about the personality of the person.” There are also family traditions to consider, he added: “You can have Santa Claus coming down a stylish chimney.” Continued from previous page Advertisement