Wooden v Limestone Fire surround

[Dianne]

Hi all, just looking for a few opinions on a fire surround.

We have a Victorian cast iron insert and need to buy a fire surround.

I'd like either a painted wood surround or a limestone surround.

The house is Victorian nothing fancy but just wanted opinions on what would look best.

Thanks, Dianne

 

[88v8]

Depends on the house, and what will blend in with the existing fixtures & features.
In the scheme of things, limestone is pretty grand.

Ivor

 

[plasticpigeon]

In a Victorian house that isn't some kind of Tudor revival or a revival of some other ancient style i think a painted wooden surround would look better and would be more appropriate. However during Victorian times marble was sometimes used in the principal rooms and slate (often with marble paint effects) was often used in less important roms or in more humble houses like mine which is a 1903 3 bed terrace.

 

[mims&pip]

Dianne, I agree with Ivor and PP......

One of our previous houses was an 1888 six bedroom Victorian *villa*, that had grand marble fireplaces with tiled cast iron inserts in the main reception rooms. These were quite large rooms - 20' x 14' - so could take something large and imposing. The two bedrooms that were directly above were the same size but the fireplaces had sadly been removed by the time we purchased the house. In the course of our restoration work we fitted a large slate fireplace (that had been historically painted in a faux marble finish) with a tiled opening in one of the rooms, whilst in the other we fitted a massive white wooden surround we found in the shed and added a reclaimed cast iron arch insert. The scale of these large fireplaces/surrounds suited the proportions of the rooms perfectly.

In our last house - Georgian with some alterations carried out in the Victorian era - we added a bath stone fireplace in the kitchen/breakfast room. Again though, the mass of the stone suited the room which, at 36' in length could take it.

Whilst our current house was built in the 1850s, it was remodelled in the Arts & Crafts style when it was extended in the 1920s, so the remaining fireplaces are of that style. The bedroom fireplaces had long gone and we have begun replacing these, but as our style tends towards the Art Nouveau and three out of four rooms are small, we have chosen quite simple timber surrounds and either copper or plain tiled inserts.

We do have one stone surround (in a reception room) that bucks the trend - as the room in question is very tiny and the f/p in question takes up almost the entire wall!

Have you any pics of the room in question, as that might assist posters in offering further advice?

Mims x

 

[Dianne]

Thanks very much folks very useful. Yes I will post a picture of the room. We still have original fireplaces in two of the bedrooms upstairs which I thought were painted wood but turns out they are painted stone!

 

[Toby Newell]

Depends on the house, where it was built and whether the build was expensive or cheaper.

It is possible limestone was used in some larger, more expensive country houses. In London (and maybe other cities) smaller terraced or semi detached city dwellings would typically have had either a cast iron (painted or not) or wooden surround. In more expensive houses the principal rooms (reception rooms, dining room, sitting room, lounge etc) would often have marble fire places which were most commonly blue-grey veined white Carrera marbles with the more expensive and grander houses using various green, red and yellow (sometimes all three in one surround) marbles. Wood panelled rooms would typically have ornate wooden surrounds, very large or grand rooms may have had a combination of stone, marble and wood.

The Victorians being fond of 'simulation' occasionally trompe l'oeil'ed the iron and wood surrounds to simulate either exotic woods or marbles.

Most of this information is anecdotal from my direct experience of visiting thousands of period properties over many years during the course of my job which mostly have been in the South East and London so it's possible there are regional variations which I am not aware of.

I had noticed there being more slate and stone fireplaces in 'the regions' so there may be local variations for smaller, less expensive dwellings. You often find that larger town and country houses whose owners had more money were less affected by regionality and tended to follow the prevailing fashion at the time for what was thought of as being 'the best' which was often highly figured or coloured marble. Not sure any of that helps! Unless you can find evidence elsewhere in the house or in adjacent houses maybe you should go with what looks and feels right.