We’ve recently moved into a new house and after removing the hideous brick thing that was in the living room I am left with this:

The original plan was to fit a wood burner but the house is really warm and a stove would make it uncomfortable so I’ve had the chimney swept with an idea to fit an open fireplace. All of the cast iron ones I can find are probably too big for the room so I had thought about using the existing clay fireback, plastering and fitting a canopy, grate etc.

Anyone done something similar or have a better idea? I can’t wait until I can stop thinking about DIY and go and ride my bike!

PS – I can’t explain the yellow stain on the carpet.

So your having an open fire?

if you don’t want the fire then wine rack.

That’s the way it’s looking at the moment, we would like a functional fireplace, just got to figure out the best way of doing it so I’m looking for some inspiration.

A wine rack is inspired.

If you have regular central heating with RTVs, then the rads will turn themselves off if you light s fire and it warms the rooms(s) they are in.

Personally if it were me I would look at whether the lintel in place is not preceded bu one higher.

When we unblocked ours we found a secondary lintel had been added makeing the space smaller. Removing the secondary lintel made for a larger opening and in our case more attractive.

If you opened up as much as you want/can now and decorated it with a view to perhaps add a stove later on it would cut down on the ball ache of having to do major work again.

Once decorated add a cast iron grate and some logs for the “look”.

Not a bad idea. The original brick arch is just under where the plaster starts but the new brick and cement underneath it seem to be holding it up so if that’s removed I don’t think it’ll be strong enough.

For us it was more a case of aesthetics.

Whilst a stove would have fitted in the opening we had it looks a lot better in situe with the higher lintel.

Arguably it works better too.

If you are going to have the chimney re plastered would make sense …..

Open fire requires ventilation, a vent of free air space half the sectional area of the chimney.

This equates to a whopping great hole in the wall, with the fire when its going sucking in large quantities of cold air.

Open fires starved of oxygen produce large amounts of carbon monoxide.

which all goes up your chimney or they go out.
the escaping gas reduces the room pressure and sucks in air from the non hermetically sealed room you inhabit.
I dont recall vast swathes of deaths from carbon monoxide from open fires when no one fitted vents – i have no idea what the current regs are tbh

When you say hideous brick thing – was that some kind of Victorian/ Edwardian fireplace or 70s dodgy?

90s or more recently dodgy, we’d have loved the original surround to be in there. It was coupled with some black wallpaper with large silver flowers printed on it to make a feature wall.

If there needs to be a whacking great vent in the wall then I think we’re back to small stove territory. I will have a log store!