Fee, Fire, Faux, Fun

Mary Swift was redecorating a client’s home in Coto de Caza recently when she encountered the enemy of many an interior designer: an ugly fireplace.

“It had a facade of plain, unfinished concrete. It looked like it never got done,” said Swift, owner of Swift Interiors in Laguna Hills.

The owners of that house were ready to rip out the offending fireplace, but Swift had a better, less costly alternative. She enlisted Laguna Beach artist Lorenzo George to give the fireplace a face lift. Using a variety of brushes and paints, George gave the fireplace a shiny, marble-like finish, complete with faux veins and cracks.

“He worked absolute magic,” Swift said.

Bland fireplaces made of plain stucco or concrete have become a fixture of modern interiors, not only in tract homes but also in many expensive custom estates. Beautiful fireplaces made of carved wood, granite, marble and other fine materials are a rarity because they cost so much in labor and supplies.

Yet that doesn’t mean homeowners are stuck with stucco. Artisans who have a knack with a paintbrush can make cookie-cutter concrete or plaster fireplaces look as if they were made of aged stone, inlaid wood, marble or granite--at a cost of hundreds, instead of thousands, of dollars.

“The ultimate is having a carved marble fireplace. That’s what you want in a $15-million home. But the real ones are frightfully expensive,” said Louis Beilharz, a Laguna Niguel painting contractor specializing in faux finishes. To save money, his clients hire him to paint fireplaces that give the illusion of stone or marble for about $200 to $600.

“You can create subtle textures in any color,” he said, adding that he once copied a travertine coffee table so the fireplace would match it.

“A cast concrete fireplace is a manufactured product,” he said. “You don’t want to bring attention to it. You want to make it look natural.”

Swift, president-elect of the Orange County chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers, recalled how she once decorated a ranch-style home in Nellie Gail that was saddled with a “cheap red-brick” fireplace. The bright brick clashed with the color scheme of the interior.

The owners “were ready to just rip it out, and I said, ‘Hold it. You don’t need to spend money there,’ ” Swift said.

She called on Beilharz, who painted it “and made it look like really old, used brick. It turned out beautiful.”

Artists can create fireplace finishes that range in style from classical to contemporary. George and his partner, Kirk Waterman of Classic Murals in Laguna Beach, are strongly influenced by Old World looks. They transform fireplaces into works of art inspired by the old cathedrals and churches of Europe.

Some can be quite lavish, with columns faux-painted in marble, plaster arches rising above the mantel that look like aged stone, and faded frescoes of Greek goddesses, gardens, temples, cherubs and other classical themes.

“The whole idea is to make the fireplace look like it’s old. That’s the charm of a fireplace,” George said. “We’ll even add smoke stains coming out of the fireplace. When you see something that’s worn, rusty or cracked, it gives a warm feeling.”

But you have to be careful.

“When they are not done right, they look uglier than if you hadn’t painted them,” said George, who has been painting and drawing for 40 years. The Romanian native painted religious murals in Italian churches and cathedrals before coming to the U.S. in 1986 and making custom designs for private homes.

More Than Meets the Eye

George and Waterman make flat surfaces look three-dimensional by using trompe l’oeil techniques, painting lifelike niches, sconces and faux moldings. At one Laguna Beach estate, they adorned the hood of a fireplace with faux marble sea horses. They often add cracks, chips and water or rust stains so the imitation stone looks as though it’s been around for centuries.

Other artists use faux techniques to create contemporary designs.

Joan Burton and Peter Richter of Architextura in Long Beach have developed a technique for applying paint and stain to make plaster or concrete fireplaces look as if they were made of exotic woods. In one San Juan Capistrano home, they gave an ordinary drywall mantel a contemporary wood finish. The intricate Art Deco design features a diamond motif of burgundy-colored burl wood accented with antiqued gold leaf and ebony details against a faux background of ash parquetry.

“To make the stucco look like burl, we started with an almost caramel-colored paint, then we layered darker colors and stains to tone it down,” Burton said. “The original color you start with often looks nothing like what you end up with. It’s an elaborate process.”

To create a wood or stone faux finish that will fool the eye, artists apply many layers of paints, stains, enamels and glazes. Using paints that are only slightly varied in color adds texture and depth to the surface.

“The more subtle, the more effective the look,” Beilharz said.

They create different textures by using all kinds of brushes, sponges and rags.

“I’ll use plastic bags, tissue paper and even newspaper--it can lead to interesting patterns,” Beilharz said.

Odd Tools of the Trade

Burton and Richter mix oil-based stains on water-based paints so they bead up to resemble the texture of wood. They apply the stains with everything from chopsticks to old shirts to create a grainy finish.

“My dad is a fan of woodworking, so we started practicing to figure out how to make these woods. It’s very detailed,” Burton said. They charge $500 to $5,000 per fireplace, depending on the size and design of the project.

Jackie Coburn, owner of Interior Art in Lake Forest, uses four or five layers of paint to make plaster or poured concrete look like marble or stone.

“Sometimes we match the fireplace with the tile or marble flooring. Some older homes have stones that aren’t available anymore, and we can match them. It fools everybody,” Coburn said.

Her projects cost about $350 to $550; they have ranged in size from a massive 26-foot-high fireplace painted in faux marble to small mantels with “rinky-dink, tiny pieces of molding.”

“Fireplaces are usually really insignificant-looking until we come in,” she said.

* Architextura, Long Beach, (562) 951-5567.

* Louis Beilharz, Laguna Niguel painting contractor, (949) 249-1483.

* Classic Murals, Laguna Beach, (949) 455-9820.

* Interior Art, Lake Forest, (949) 459-7899.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Tools of the Trade

Artists with a mastery of materials and technique can transform brick, plaster or concrete fireplaces and mantels into ones that look custom and expensive.

Faux finishes can create a look of:

* Marble

* Stone

* Inlaid wood

* Granite

* Old, used brick

* Faded frescoes

* Smoke stains

Trompe l’oeil techniques can add dimension, too. Flat surfaces can be made to look like:

* Niches

* Sconces

* Molding

* Veins and cracks

Tools:

* Paint

* Stains

* Enamels

* Glazes

* Brushes

* Sponges

* Rags

* Plastic bags

* Tissue paper

* Newspaper

* Chopsticks

* Old shirts