Antique Fireplace

The antique fireplace may not be to everyone's taste, but there are certain settings where it is absolutely of its moment. Picture a Victorian house, all high ceilings, sash windows and beautiful coving around the room, and you will picture within it a delicately decorated antique fireplace, perhaps with cast iron grate, maybe with a majestic marble surround and decorative tiling to finish it off – it works, doesn't it?

Of course, there is nothing stopping you from redecorating your room in a modern style, but somehow the gravitas of the original setting is lost on Victorian and Edwardian buildings when people try and bring them ‘up to date'.

This is what happened during the middle of the 20 th century, when interior design began to modernise the way our homes looked; even the most beautiful of typical antique style rooms were stripped of much of their detail, and antique fireplaces were unceremoniously hidden away behind plaster board – those, that is, that were not criminally ripped out at the time.

The arrival of gas meant that the antique fireplace was redundant – as was, largely, the chimney – but these days there is a better understanding of how certain things fit into a set environment.

If you are lucky enough to have found an old antique fireplace in your home and are looking to restore it then there is plenty of information on the internet for you to begin with, but if you wish to install an antique fireplace there are those firms that supply reproduction items that look very much like the original, as well as reclamation firms that have removed genuine items from homes, restored them, and are willing to sell them on to you for refitting in their rightful place.

Look for original tiling, iron grates and marble or stone surrounds – the latter may, of course, survive – when arriving at your antique fireplace design, and in a room where there was originally such an item it will be rejuvenated by the addition of a beautiful and of the time fireplace that will never disappoint.