Snuggling Up to a Fireplace Make-Over

Fireplace season has arrived, stirring thoughts about how to give the hearth of the home a little visual crackle.

In many older houses, fireplaces were graced with handsome woodwork and architectural detailing. In lots of newer homes, condos and town houses, though, the fireplace isn’t much more than a hole in the wall with minimal framing and a serviceable red brick surround. But there are ways, short of demolition, to embellish an existing fireplace.

Before embarking on any redo, remember that certain fireplace dimensions are set by local building codes. County code determines the size of the opening, based on the size of the flue. And most codes specify a masonry surround six to 12 inches wide between the edge of the firebox and any wood or other combustible material.

Three main fireplace components are candidates for make-over: the mantel, the surround and the hearth.

Victoria Neale, an interior designer in the District of Columbia, gave a skimpy mantel stronger presence by building it up with a chunky piece of ready-made crown molding. “I used traditional molding to make a shelf big enough for a hefty pair of candlesticks,” Neale says. “Beefing up the mantel improved the proportions, making the fireplace a legitimate focal point.”

Neale says plenty of sources offer ready-made decorative elements that can dress up a plain-faced mantel. Plain woodwork around the firebox can be given architectural richness with ornaments like rosettes and medallions, or trim like Greek key and dentil molding strips. Baseboard molding can be added to create plinths on the vertical supports, called legs. Many such decorative additions, including fluting for pilasters, can be found at Home Depot and Lowe’s.

But Alexandria, Va., architect Robert Bentley Adams says the mother of all troves is a Chicago-based mail-order house that’s been around since 1887. The Decorators Supply Corp.’s catalogs include 14,000 historically correct architectural ornaments. Catalogs cost $5 (https://www.decoratorssupply.com or [773] 847-6300).

When it comes to the masonry framing the fireplace--often predictable red brick and sometimes soot-stained to boot--marble, slate or ceramic tiles can be used as cover-ups. Thin tiles can be applied directly to the face of brick; thicker tiles may require temporarily removing the mantel.

Neale hid the Design Center surround under mirror mottled with spray-on oven cleaner so it would look aged. “I left it on a few minutes and wiped it off.”

If the existing hearth is structurally stable and flush with the floor, it can also be covered with a new material. But Neale advises that it’s better to remove old material so the replacement will be as level as possible. You can always repeat the material used for the surround, but if the surround is in patterned tile, Neale votes for something less busy on the hearth. Slate or marble in white or light beige would be easier to live with, she says.