Stone or marble mantels that look right with wood burning insert?

[jonb]

Hello--first post here.

We have a fireplace in our family room that the previous owner converted to gas and fitted with an elaborate carved wood mantel. We looked at converting it back to wood, but were told the chimney and firebox are in bad shape and need a lot of work. Also the mantel is completely illegal for just about anything, since the wood goes right up to the firebox.

So now the plan is to replace it with a wood-burning insert with a chimney liner, and an appropriate mantel.

Having shopped around the web and looked at many pictures of fireplace inserts, they all look out of proportion to me. Even a fairly large insert like the Vermont Castings Montpelier looks tiny in the usual mantel opening. I see most people use some sort of metal or masonry filler panel which looks odd.

Does anyone make an insert that fills a normal fireplace opening? Or is there a mantel design that fits nicely around an insert without big expanses of filler panels? Thanks for any suggestions.

Our existing fireplace and mantel, with dimensions:

A mockup I made with a marble mantel of the right exterior size that we like (note all the filler needed around the Montpelier):

 

[BrowningBAR]

Whatever you do, remove the old mantel and surround carefully. People pay good money for those. You could sell it and cover a lot of your costs.

 

[Stax]

Go stone, IMO. Stone and stoves (insert in this case) are made for each other. Marble is just too ornate for me. Anyhow, you're height and width would allow for a monster but the depth of your firebox may have you settling for a medium sized insert. I could be wrong. You can customize just about anything (non-combustible) for an inside fit. Just have to know the right person or be able to do it yourself. I've seen sheet metal/cast fabricated for inside mounts but not marble.

P.S. Nice photoshop job!

 

[Grinnell]

Don't they have PA Bluestone? that would look cool

i like using local materials

When i lived in Bloomington IN we had several things using local limestone

 

[jimbom]

Most wood burning stove/inserts are considered large if they have a three or four cubic foot firebox. So it seems you are going to have to have a small surround to match, as inserts are not very large. This leads to the discordance of small insert in large stone feature. Perhaps move the insert to right below the mantel and narrow the surround and mantel to match.

 

[Got Wood]

My thought, if you are going to have to that much demo I think ripping it all out and putting in a zero clearance fireplace (stove) is a consideration. There are a number of quality brands to chose from. This is what I did. I went with the FPX 44

I personally like the stone look. Here is mine.... there is another recent thread on a similar topic too

 

[Stax]

Good Wood...that is simply gorgeous! Nice going.

 

[jonb]

Thanks for the input. A zero-clearance fireplace is out because the existing fireplace is built into the stone exterior wall.

I found this too-ornate mantle, but which does have the right proportions for a small firebox/insert.

 

[Biff_CT2]

Don't they have PA Bluestone? that would look cool

i like using local materials

When i lived in Bloomington IN we had several things using local limestone

Ditto.

We did a custom cut bluestone mantle for our brick-faced fireplace. Cost was around $200 bucks installed as I remember, and it works well aesthetically with our Jotul 550.

We agonized over the cultured stone stuff for long time, but ultimately concluded that the bulk of it simply looks ridiculous and costs way too much money.

 

[Grinnell]

I think if you used two different materials for the fireplace instead of the same material for both the surround/mantel and the facing it would not make the insert seem so small.

this is what we did for a gas insert