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Our house was built in 1985, brick Georgia, "4 up, 4 down" - hipped roof. Great structure!
We have been updating for 4 years. We have mostly 18th C (repro) furniture, but have been trying to get a bit less stuffy w/ this house.
I want to know what you all think about further renovations that will make sure our home is completely "out of the 80s."
Our fireplace. Woodburning (we would prefer gas but that is another discussion b/c of running line and cost). Typical full brick w/ raised hearth. Any suggestions about re-facing? We installed wood floors so we can't pull out the raised hearth. How do we handle re-facing the hearth? Any ideas, suggestions, pics or links? Anyone else done this? We have baltic brown granite in adjoining kitchen (and love it). But we think facing w/ the same material would be a bit much. Or not???
Or just paint brick white, and do more millwork around fireplace that would cover up a lot of the brick. Existing mantle is white.
And on subject of fireplace . . . we have a brass opening surround. What the heck do we do w/ this? We need to have some sort of covering and don't have a clue what will look best. Black?
What about this - we are thinking we may do some electrical work next. We have the typical kitchen opened to family room (I think we should call it hearth room, now, LOL!!!) Eat in space in kitchen, w/ bay window. Has a chandelier now . . . fan in "hearth room" and only one other spotlight. The room has limited light from French doors off family room. We are thinking - take out chandelier and ceiling fan and put in about 10 -12 can lights (total) in both rooms. Suggestions?
Kitchen has hand glazed cabinets (off white - walnut glaze) - look great - w/ stainless appliances. Floors are hardwood, very dark cherry. All trim is white. Grass cloth in hearth room, tuscan gold on kitchen walls. Really nice mouldings throughout.
Theres two ways to go about the fireplace surround and hearth.
One- you can apply a mortar "scratch" coat over all the brick then apply marble over that.
Two- if your f/pl is a modular type (not a true masonry type) you can remove the mantle, tear out the surround and hearth and then replace with marble- build the new raised hearth with some 2X's and plywood or have marble cut to fill space where raised hearth was.
Can lights are always a good choice- Keep one thing in mind. There are lots of different kinds on the market- so don't think about general lighting alone. Think about spots for art work, and/or bookcases. Also, regular incandesent, and halogen bulbs burn a lot of energy. There are now LED's and Florescents which can substanially reduce your energy cost and some are also dimable.
Theres two ways to go about the fireplace surround and hearth.
One- you can apply a mortar "scratch" coat over all the brick then apply marble over that.
Two- if your f/pl is a modular type (not a true masonry type) you can remove the mantle, tear out the surround and hearth and then replace with marble- build the new raised hearth with some 2X's and plywood or have marble cut to fill space where raised hearth was.
Can lights are always a good choice- Keep one thing in mind. There are lots of different kinds on the market- so don't think about general lighting alone. Think about spots for art work, and/or bookcases. Also, regular incandesent, and halogen bulbs burn a lot of energy. There are now LED's and Florescents which can substanially reduce your energy cost and some are also dimable.
Yes, our fireplace is real masonry. Sounds like we will be doing the "scratch" coat.
Thanks for info on can lights. I don't know what you call that one type of light - light an "eyeball???" - rounded and can be "focused" - I am thinking (now that you mentioned varying the types of lights) that these might be good to focus on art work.
Location: Sometimes Maryland, sometimes NoVA. Depends on the day of the week
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Please don't paint your brick! Someday, you may sell your house to someone who loves brick and will never be able to return it to its original glory.
If you can't tell, personally, I like brick. I see nothing wrong with it. I like a raised hearth, too. It fits in a Georgian style house just fine. If you were in a ranch or something, I'd suggest stacked stone, but brick is my second choice of fireplace materials. If you must, I'd go with the millwork to tone down the brick. The brass surround - yeah, thats gotta go! Black would be timeless. Nickel is popular these days, but you run the risk of that looking "so 2005" at some point. Black would probably never do that.
As for the recessed (can) lights. Unless your space is massive, 10-12 may be overkill. And make sure you have them on dimmers. 6 recessed lights in a room is very, very bright. We have 4 in our ~18x30 living room and it is plenty! 4 would probably be enough to light most rooms, so unless you use the other 2 as accent lighting, its going to be bright.
I'd also consider replacing the chandelier with another, more up to date one. Its good to have some lighting over the table that makes it look like a table is supposed to be there. Otherwise, something just looks "off."
Anyway, those are just my opinions. Take them or leave them.
Building codes restrict the distance you can put combustible materials to the fireplace opening. So the really old fashioned mantels that come right up to the opening are no longer allowed. Don't put millwork any closer than code allows. Getting a "modern" trendy look to your house that was built to mimic 200 year old houses is not worth having it catch on fire.
It sounds like you should just buy another more modern house instead of ruining the one you have with this year's trendy styles. Classics continue to be popular because most people like their beauty. They retain their resale value much better than ones that were stripped of their character. If your furniture feels stuffy to you, then sell it and get other stuff that you like better. I've never understood people who buy classically fitted houses that cost them more because of the trim then strip them out. Just buy a modern stripped down house if that is what you like.
Myself, I'd probably just paint the brick, white, and put the trimwork around it. I've seen on a home improvement show, where they took the brass opening surround and painted it black (using paint made for this purpose, it's heat-resistant). It looked really good and updated, and cost little.
Since your other trim is white, it would match too.
I totally agree with rubytue! I love unpainted brick, too. If I was looking at a house with a marble fireplace or painted brick I wouldn't buy it, or I'd have it replaced. We have two brick fireplaces, one of which has beautiful milled wood surrounding it. And I think wood-burning fires are so much prettier than gas. Of course everyone has different taste, and you should do what you like, but I wouldn't automatically assume a brick fireplace was "80's". A lot of people prefer them, especially in the style home you have.
Please don't paint your brick! Someday, you may sell your house to someone who loves brick and will never be able to return it to its original glory.
If you can't tell, personally, I like brick. I see nothing wrong with it. I like a raised hearth, too. It fits in a Georgian style house just fine. If you were in a ranch or something, I'd suggest stacked stone, but brick is my second choice of fireplace materials. If you must, I'd go with the millwork to tone down the brick. The brass surround - yeah, thats gotta go! Black would be timeless. Nickel is popular these days, but you run the risk of that looking "so 2005" at some point. Black would probably never do that.
As for the recessed (can) lights. Unless your space is massive, 10-12 may be overkill. And make sure you have them on dimmers. 6 recessed lights in a room is very, very bright. We have 4 in our ~18x30 living room and it is plenty! 4 would probably be enough to light most rooms, so unless you use the other 2 as accent lighting, its going to be bright.
I'd also consider replacing the chandelier with another, more up to date one. Its good to have some lighting over the table that makes it look like a table is supposed to be there. Otherwise, something just looks "off."
Anyway, those are just my opinions. Take them or leave them.
Thank you so much for the info - and your opinions! We struggle w/ painting the brick, too. I have never done that and have truly worried that we (or someone else) would later really detest it. I think adding some millwork would work - tone it down a bit. It is a very wide fireplace. We are thinking the black surround would work best, too. I really appreciate having another opinion on that, too.
As for the can lights, I agree - and yes, all my lights are on dimmers . . . I would be doing several can lights and several smaller spot lights for artwork (is what I am thinking). It really really helps to know your space and what you did for lighting as yes, I do not want overkill!!!! Our kitchen opens to the hearth rooms so I was thinking maybe 5 in one and 4-5 in the other, as both spaces are about 20 x 24.
You have helped me so much and I really appreciate your taking time to write!
Building codes restrict the distance you can put combustible materials to the fireplace opening. So the really old fashioned mantels that come right up to the opening are no longer allowed. Don't put millwork any closer than code allows. Getting a "modern" trendy look to your house that was built to mimic 200 year old houses is not worth having it catch on fire.
It sounds like you should just buy another more modern house instead of ruining the one you have with this year's trendy styles. Classics continue to be popular because most people like their beauty. They retain their resale value much better than ones that were stripped of their character. If your furniture feels stuffy to you, then sell it and get other stuff that you like better. I've never understood people who buy classically fitted houses that cost them more because of the trim then strip them out. Just buy a modern stripped down house if that is what you like.
Thanks for mentioning the codes! I will def check that out. However, I don't think that will be a problem. It is a really wide fireplace.
I guess I didn't explain very well. We love our Georgian and are not trying to make it into a "modern" house. We have all 18th C furniture, wood floors, etc. We are just trying to update it so that it does look less like it was built in the 80s. There was a "colonial" pole and rail "fence" separating the kitchen and family room ("hearth room") that screamed out 1985 when we bought it and we had that removed when we put down the floors. The Georgian started shining through w/ just that one detail (and the dark cherry floors, helped too, of course). I have no clue why the builder did rail when the mouldings are all 6 in and very classic - w/ dentil moulding . . . why add that ticky tack rail . . . anyway . . . it is gone now!
I am going for classic - just don't want to look like the 80s . . . want to look more like Colonial Wiliamsburg, as that is the type of furniture and accessories we have been collecting for 30 years.
I totally agree with rubytue! I love unpainted brick, too. If I was looking at a house with a marble fireplace or painted brick I wouldn't buy it, or I'd have it replaced. We have two brick fireplaces, one of which has beautiful milled wood surrounding it. And I think wood-burning fires are so much prettier than gas. Of course everyone has different taste, and you should do what you like, but I wouldn't automatically assume a brick fireplace was "80's". A lot of people prefer them, especially in the style home you have.
Thank you for passing that on about the fireplace. I just assumed everyone was sick of carrying in wood and wanted gas! I love a wood burning fireplace, too. I am marking the painted brick off the list, too! Thank you for letting me know your thoughts . . . feeling better about my decisions now . . .
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Thank you, K!
Take them or leave them.
