Fireplace tile cover-up plan
I've had a brilliant idea. You might recall the spinach dip tile on my dining room fireplace. Beloved by antique Rookwood fans, despised by yours truly. I can't bring myself to rip it out, so my plan is to hide it in a temporary fashion. I considered decals, wood panels, and all sorts of inelegant options.
Then I stumbled on Fasade panels at Home Depot one day after abandoning Alex in the insulation aisle. (He was engrossed, which was mystifying, since it's the most boring aisle in the entire store.) My wandering led me to these thermoplastic panels modeled after vintage tin ceiling tiles. They're lightweight and seem easy to cut. There were only a couple options in a rack in the store, but I looked online and found lots more designs and finishes. I contacted the manufacturer for samples, and these arrived today.
Excuse the nasty looking photo with flash, which doesn't do the finishes justice. I'm narrowing it down, and then I'm gonna give this fireplace a facelift. (Please note this is not a working fireplace, so you needn't fear I'll end up with a melted puddle of tile.) I'm so excited! I'll let you know how it turns out.
21 comments:
That looks like a great solution! (And it seems Alex has something more practical than decorating on his mind. ;) )
Mum
Wicked cool! Can't wait to see.
Yaaaay! What a great solution! It's so pretty. Green is to me what orange is to you, so you know how bad it must be when I declare that the tile is hideous.
we just did this with our fireplace. we used actual tin ceiling tiles. it worked out really well. we didn't know about these...wonder how much the price difference would have been.
regardless, we're very happy with how our fireplace looks now.
here's a link to the flickr set with pictures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ared2879/sets/72157631991336604/
and what you can't see - in case one is wondering why we got rid of the orange tiles - there are quite a few damaged tiles, so we needed to do something.
lord i love those tiles! Original tin ceiling tiles never took off in the UK but finally 100 years later there’s one place that sells the large ones!
Great idea they'll look amazing, can't wait to see the results, wish they would sell them in the UK!
Great idea! I love the second from the right one. It plays so well with the wood!
I think the second from the right goes best with the fireplace and the wood!they're so pretty! such an improvement
The photos are sort of tricky since the angle and lighting make the tiles look really different. I'm thinking of going with the first one on the left in each photo. It looks light in the first photo and dark in the last photo, and in reality it's somewhere between the pale gray and the dark bronze. We're hoping for light enough to contrast with the wood, but dark enough that it looks like it belongs and isn't too startlingly bright.
Hooray for changing the fireplace paneling without having to rip it out! I especially liked your bewilderment over Alex's engrossment in the insulation section at the store. I thought, "Ah, I could see that." Engineer Alex. Love y'all two!
Hi, I like the darker one too! At first I like the copper but I think it is too much like the wood. Helen S
totally a fantastic idea. i would have done this in my last rental, which had red brick painted an even redder brick shade. ugh.
I think that's an ideal solution - leaving the original tiles intact for posterity, but having a surround you like! I'm going to look around and see what I can find for our own really ugly fireplace tiles (muddy brown) that we thought we'd have to rip off and/or have a whole new surround made for many dollars.
What can I say Jessica, of course the tin relief tiles are perfect! Great idea!
I found those "tiles" in Home Depot too! Aren't they beautiful? I'm going to use some as a backsplash in the kitchen.
Jan
Glad you are preserving it. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to make that busy green 'fit in!' We had tile that literally was the square tile that you were supposed to use in the 70's in the bathroom. in our living room. Here is a post I wrote about covering it up - except we did not preserve the ugly 1970's bathroom tile. http://theoldpostroadblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/fireplace-surround-before-and-after.html
Trish, funny--we have tile like yours on the fireplace in our parlor, too! As well as on the floor of the ugly downstairs bathroom :) Our parlor and living room fireplaces are going to get actual new tile at some point. The dining room is the only one with original tile left, so that one will just get a new, removable skin.
Susan, ha ha, of course you like this idea, knowing you! :)
Jan, you're going to have an awesome backsplash.
Have you met Mike Kolb yet? He is great at all kinds of stuff. He can do anything. He used to build sets in hollywood so he has great ideas about how to cover something up temporarily, or refinish something. He is AmazingFantastic at matching paint colors (he mixes it right at your house, so if its an older color that’s faded, he can still match it - from enough for a small patch to a whole room.) Ask around and someone will hook you up with him. He lives on Park. He would be a great resource if you needed help. - carole
Carole, thanks! I've never met him, but he sounds like someone I need to know! Terrific!
Neat tiles, I bet theyd work great as a backsplash too. Ive only seen the big ceiling ones before and have been tryinb to figure out how to make them work. Good luck on the fireplace. Im anxious to see how it turns out.
Love this idea! But are they heat resistant enough to put on a used fireplace?
I wouldn't put them on a working fireplace, no.
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