Yes or No design question

[Paul L]

We'd both love to run the new stone all the way to the ceiling but the design team of 2 disagrees as to the practicality of doing it.

No ... "dude you have a beam running into your chimney"

or

Yes ... "Nice!"

 

[Ashful]

Well, here's an idea for how it might look if the stone is stopped at the mantel. This was built ca.1773, and is stone all the way up, but covered in wood paneling from 6 feet up.

 

[Ashful]

Another shot from side.

 

[BrotherBart]

Dude! Nice beam running into your chimney.

I can't figure out if the front of that smoke chamber is open?

 

[webby3650]

Dude! Nice beam running into your chimney.

I can't figure out if the front of that smoke chamber is open?

That's a Heatilator with the metal smoke chamber. For the extra lazy mason!

 

[webby3650]

Well, here's an idea for how it might look if the stone is stopped at the mantel. This was built ca.1773, and is stone all the way up, but covered in wood paneling from 6 feet up.

View attachment 113336

The OP wants to know about his fireplace, not his closet! Your fireplaces are bigger than my closets!

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

Another shot from side.

View attachment 113337

J, is that original stone work? And the stone behind the paneling, why is it covered up?

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

We'd both love to run the new stone all the way to the ceiling but the design team of 2 disagrees as to the practicality of doing it.

No ... "dude you have a beam running into your chimney"

or

Yes ... "Nice!"

Out of curiosity, is that a faux beam or a functional exposed beam? What year is your house? It looks like your project has some great potential, I like the stone to the ceiling idea myself. But the beam as it is now, looks sort of unattractive and with the stone I'm not quite sure how they will look together.

 

[akbear]

If you want to do stone, do stone, but if that still seems bothersome (let's face it, no matter what you put up there the beam is still there unless you remove or hide it) then perhaps accentuate it rather than hiding or ignoring it. Some suggestions might be to put a rectangular piece of lannon stone directly under the beam or some of the same stones projected out a bit to look like a ledge that the beam sits on, or you could go really big and do a bas relief chimney that projects out slightly from the rest of the stone wall that perhaps veers to the side of the beam that could also include a faux ledge for the beam as well. As for comical or critical guests, well there's always that trick of shutting off the porch light and keeping the door locked.

 

[Ashful]

The OP wants to know about his fireplace, not his closet! Your fireplaces are bigger than my closets!

Old house... so my fireplaces are bigger than MY closets, too! :lol:

J, is that original stone work? And the stone behind the paneling, why is it covered up?

Yep, original stone, but everything else around it is new. As to why it's covered up, I'll have to pull out the old pics from the prior owner to remember why he did that. I was just showing the photos since it sounded like this was one of the options the OP was debating.

 

[Ashful]

It's hard for me to tell in the photo provided, but is that a steel I-beam? If so, why not just box it in with wood and stone up to it, if you want stone all the way up? I've seen a few steel beams wrapped in wood, either reclaimed and resawn from old beams, or even new lumber, which when dressed were almost indistinguishable from an old hand-hewn beam.

 

[Paul L]

Thanks folks ... the beam is not an ibeam, it's a marginally unattractive original construction from the early 60's but I've got a few of them, so change is out of the question. I like akbear's idea of framing it in to make it look like it belongs. Still undecided.

 

[Ashful]

I guess it's hard to say why you find it so unattractive from that one photo.

Do mind the clearances, with your new install. I spy wall studs touching the masonry on each side of that firebox. Those may be an issue.

 

[jharkin]

Old house... so my fireplaces are bigger than MY closets, too! :lol:

Hey wait, you actually have closets??
jealous

 

[Jags]

I like akbear's idea. I would bet that would look sharp. And Joful's sharp eye has caught a potential issue. Review the Clearance to combustible requirements of your stove and double check the masonry work (even in the back) to make sure it meets the specs.

 

[akbear]

Here's another completely different idea, you could use a sight line trick to somewhat direct and balance how one would view the wall if you were to add something (in this case shelves similar in look to the beam) that kind of guides ones eye diagonally up and to the right. I only attempted one example, and mind you it's on an editor that I've only just recently installed and don't care to spend any time learning how to make it do what I want. Rather than simply stepping up shelves to the right, my crude little scribble staggers them to also give more weight to the right side. (all right, I actually did two, but on the same exact theme, but it gives you an idea the differences that also could be had by changing the thickness of the shelves)

 

[Paul L]

Thanks akbear ... that really works.