Making an old firebox pretty (behind a new stove)

[lhr]

We're considering installing a new wood burning stove (Ideal Steel Hybrid?) partially inside an existing fireplace, but my wife is concerned about the aesthetics. The large firebox is rusty metal, so I'm wondering what we can do to make it look good behind the stove, short of a complete $2,000 - $3,000 firebox rebuild. (Preferably well short of that!)

We could clean it up and use stove paint, as Grisu suggested in this thread.

Could some of the flooring products that look like tile be installed to line the firebox walls? This assumes that we'll never use the fireplace again as a fireplace, so the material would only have to handle the heat from the stove several inches away. Or would real tile handle the heat better?

Other ideas and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks!

 

[begreen]

As in the other thread, I'd paint it. Whatever is used it should be completely non-combustible. That includes the substrate. Gluing is not an option.

 

[lhr]

Another question. Would something installed over the the old steel survive as the metal beneath it expands and contracts?

 

[cuttingedge]

What I did was wire brush the whole inside of the fireplace and painted it with high temp black paint. It looks much better than it would have had I not done that.

 

[fossil]

These kinds of decisions always come down to personal preferences, as there are multiple ways to get the job done. I believe I'd be inclined to do just keep it real simple and do what cuttingedge described above ^ Easy peasy, the box will just fade into the background. Doing tile or whatever would tend to draw the observer's eye away from the stove...which is not what I would want. Rick