Fireplaces

I am starting work on the two rooms plus the hall on the ground floor and am currently flitting from sitting room to dining room and feeling unable to start on either.  I find it very hard to determine where I might want a chimney breast and/or cupboards or what size a fireplace should be etc when I have no idea what furniture I will be able to get or even what I want.

For example my music room is 21 inches wide which sounds delightfully capacious but in reality three inches of that is a 'pass through' so its usable space is 18 inches.  Still rather grand you might think.  Put a piano and seat in there and you would be astounded how much room is swallowed up - so then what sort of seating might I want in the remaining space and where is the fireplace in all this.

After a lot of faffing about I decided the first step should be sorting out all the fireplaces and fires and chimney breasts I have amassed for the whole house in an attempt to decide which should go where.  This merely created even more confusion.

I suspect I am not the only person who buys things as they go along ready for this room or that when we get there and then discover when we do get there that it was not the best choice.

I made one good purchase that I still like and is perfect for the room it was chosen for - the dining room.  I bought this fire surround from Newtonwood Miniatures (last year maybe) and it seems to have set the standard for all others.

I then went on to buy various Phoenix fireplaces and their coals for virtually every room in the house.

Some while after this my Georgian house became a 'modern' one and I no longer need five fireplaces!

I then went on to buy one too many fire surrounds at a recent show from Miniature Mansions.  No idea why I am unable to count up to two!

The top one proved too wide for the small grate I want to use in the very small library so I hacked it to bits to do a remake on it...... it now resides in the dustbin.  What to do with the other two?

Looking at the one I like (from Newtonwood) I wondered if I could dress them up with some marble inserts.  I googled marbled papers and printed a couple.  I then cut them super carefully to fill some spaces.

I ended up with a fireplace for the music room - the large dark green one and one for the sitting room which might be passable if used on a side wall rather than made a feature of and surrounded by furniture.  maybe a mirror or picture will distract?

As for the library I am talking to Newtonwood in hopes they might bring me a fireplace and surround to the York show.  A more expensive but a so much easier option.

(02/05/16)