3 jaw-dropping fireplace makeovers

After: An inviting place to hang out with friends

To achieve her dream of a glamorous hideaway, homeowner Carolyn Powers turned to designer Jennifer Charleston, who began by extending the fireplace six feet along the wall and adding a mantel and storage cubby for firewood. Charleston also divided the room with a sheer curtain, hung from a recessed track, that tucks into a slit in the wall when not in use. The fireplace now works as the unifying factor for the multifunctional space.

Info: Design, Jennifer Charleston, Twenty7 Design Workshop, Los Angeles, 213-622-7830.

What makes it work

Here are Charleston’s essential ingredients for creating this look.

• Simplicity: The earthy palette warms the room. A custom fireplace screen of copper mesh (Wilshire Fireplace Shops) allows the fire to take center stage. The grain of the fir plank mantel is still visible under a dark espresso stain. Accents used sparingly make for an uncluttered feel.
   
• Varied textures: The plaster on the fireplace wall (similar Antiqua finishes from Vero Venetian Plaster, 714-637-7341) was left unpolished for a warm, suedelike finish. Glass mosaic tiles (Bisazza) in brown, bronze, burgundy and white gleam in the firelight. The curtain adds softness and variable degrees of privacy and connection.
   
• Functionality: The reconfigured space serves multiple purposes: party zone and retreat space. The low table can hold coffee cups or dinner; the mantel doubles as a ledge for cocktails.

Before: 50-year-old brick fireplace

After painting the walls of their living room a golden yellow, Peter and Beth Whiteley decided that the 50-year-old fireplace — white-painted brick within a ready-made wood surround — also needed upgrading. The masonry shell was well constructed, so the transformation could be largely superficial, like putting icing on a cake. The project took two weekends to complete and cost about $400.

After: A glowing update

This makeover uses slate tile and a clean-lined mantel to create a contemporary look.

Material choices and techniques

Peter and Beth Whiteley’s new fireplace front has three main components: the material surrounding the firebox and covering the hearth (which must be fireproof), the new surround and the mantel top. For the firebox and hearth, they selected African Prairie Slate, a richly patterned stone that is sold in gauged (evenly thick) 12-inch squares. The slate, which came from Echeguren Slate in San Francisco, 415-206-9343, cost about $5.60 per tile. With a wet saw rented from a home improvement store, Peter Whiteley cut the tiles to size. He attached them to the old brick with marble and granite adhesive (from Liquid Nails Adhesives, 800-634-0015).

The frame of 2-by-6s for the new surround is screwed to the wall around the masonry shell with 3-inch deck screws.

After screwing on gypsum board, the Whiteleys applied an acrylic-based binder mix to assure that a plaster coating would adhere. Then they coated the surround with an easy-to-apply, noncombustible clay plaster called American Clay Finishes, 866-404-1634; it comes in 12 colors, and the Whiteleys picked the tawny Nantucket Sand.

The crowning touch is the mantel top — a 2-inch-thick slab of black walnut that is 9 inches wide and 74 inches long.

(See the step-by-step photos of this fireplace makeover at Sunset.com.)

Before: Mundane and dull

A white-painted fireplace of slump-block adobe made this family room seem drab and dated.

After: Vibrant focal point

Building up the façade to make it thicker and covering it in vibrant tomato bisque–hued plaster turned the hearth into a showpiece.

The smooth texture of the plastered surface adds to the allure. “We were inspired by vivid Etruscan colors,” says owner Josie Kelley, who, with her husband, Steve, wanted the multilayer surface of marmorino — a plaster made with marble bits — to be subtly variegated. The monolithic, 8-foot-wide fireplace front rises from a new oak floor to the open-beam ceiling. The table-height firebox opening, which includes a stainless steel hearth, makes the fire look more like a painting or built-in aquarium. To add to the sculptural simplicity, the gas-fed flames rise through a bed of polished black stones.

Flanking the fireplace are low, 12-inch-deep cabinets made of makore (African cherry) and walls painted in a khaki color. Colorful pillows and a spiral-patterned rug accent the modern furniture and complete the look.

Design: Lindy Small Architecture, Oakland, Calif, 510-251-1066