Family Room Color / Giant Brick Fireplace

kashimama

Here is a pic of our family room:


Here is what I'm thinking... Some sort of beachy theme with a more grayish blue than the swatch on the wall and the fireplace in a more of a sand color (the swatch on the wall will be used in the adjoining kitchen). Will that make the fireplace look huger? Do you think there will be problems with putting components for the TV (DVD player, etc) into the hole on the Left? We won't use the fireplace too often, but we do plan on leaving it functional. We are planning on mounting a flatscreen tv above the fireplace, but again I'm worried about the heat.

I'd appreciate your thoughts!

Eva Wild

As for the flatscreen, have you solved the issue of hiding the cords? As for the heat, what happens when the fireplace is lit. Put your hand up there. If the fireplace wall seems a little much, try adding a thick floating mantle - also serving to divert some heat from straight up drift - also serving to hide some of the wiring. If you're thinking beachy, how about a driftwood ish slab for the mantle? Then I would add a slab of marble/granite/SOMEthing in the same tones as a hearth, concealing some of that brick color. And there's always paint fort the whole thing. Hmmm, maybe fir out all around the fireplace surface, allowing wiring space behind the new surface. Just some stream of consciousness ideas.

kashimama

Wow, this is an old thread! We actually ended up painting and I'm really happy with the result. There was a lot of loose debris -- I wonder if it had ever been properly cleaned off in 20 years!

mdancey

So.........where is the picture of the completed work?