Going Mod With A Traditional Fireplace - Designed In A Click Q and A

These homeowners have been remodeling their traditional home to get it to a more modern style. They've done a great job so far but were stumped on how to address the fireplace. They had a few ideas and wanted to run them by someone and see where to go from here.

After a glimpse at their images, I knew this would be a fun Q and A.

I loved the blue sofas, their mod lighting, and the consoles in that room. Their wood-look tile looked great in the herringbone pattern and the white paint just freshened everything up. 

Here were the BEFORE pics of the house, when they bought it a few years ago.

Big change, no?

They were considering some 3-dimensional fiber wallcoverings to cover the wall area of the fireplace, after removing the mantle. They thought the granite tile should stay and couldn't figure out how to transition the materials or where to apply the wallcovering on this fireplace wall.

Here were some of the wallcoverings they were considering. 

This fireplace is right off the entry to their home and makes a big style statement. Fireplaces often do that in a home and I love to customize them in my remodels.

How to go mod with this traditional fireplace?

Here's what I advised.

I love the direction you've gone here, I especially love those sofas.

I've gotta say, I would rip that black tile off there so fast and clad the whole fireplace in tile.

Here's the deal. If you are tearing off the mantel, the tile should come off with a similar amount of disruption/demo as well. Sometimes we leave the mantle and just demo the tile.

Now, it'll go down to the studs, and they'll put up a backer board that is sturdier than sheetrock for tiling, but we do this all the time. It's not that big of a deal. This is a big style statement in your room. Redoing that whole section would make a big difference and set the tone for your style.

Here were my tile suggestions, these from Walker Zanger's Studio Moderne Collection:

These below are from Fireclay, similar look.

The tile itself is kinda pricey with those two, but it is an investment statement you are making and one you want to be happy with.

If you want to go lower price, then even doing some kind of square or rectangular tiles in a modern pattern could create a similar look.

I wouldn't break up the visual there with a lower section and a higher. I would do it all one tile top to bottom and then turn the sides to die into the wall behind.

I would remove the crown at the top, you can then piece the crown at the sides with leftovers that you've removed to die the crown into the fireplace wall sides.

(Additional Tips Below)

I would also recommend painting the crown the color of the wall. I feel like the line around the room in the contrasting color is distracting from your big statement sofas. I mean, that traditional crown is not something you really want to highlight stylistically now anyway, right? It will just visually go away if you paint it to match the walls/ceiling.

Is the floor a tile? If so, hopefully you have some additional left over and you can just tile up to the fireplace and not worry about a hearth. If you do want a hearth, consider a slab of some kind of natural material, like a white marble or something, just to contrast. You could perhaps find a remnant somewhere.

Then, eventually, get some professionally made drapery panels. They would make a huge difference in the quality level of the room.

You've done a great job, love the floor and your furnishings. All you have to do is finish it up.

I sent her a link to these posts, below, that highlighted what I had mentioned in my recommendations. They delve into the ideas a bit further and help explain my comments.

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