Hi Hilary, thank you so much for your kind comments. It gets pretty darn cold up here, in N Yorkshire and when the fire is lit, it really does warm up the room (whilst the rest of the house is like a bloomin' ice box!) Hello again Bespoke Decorative Finishes, thank you too for your kind words. Ah, the gold mirror is from ebay - thank you again. Yours is beautifully done and so clever and sophisticated; mine is a bit 'rustic' but I think ok for the room, in probably a very basic way, which has limestone flags. When I first came to the house 8 years ago, the previous owner had built the fireplace out in the same stone as the back of it to 1.5 metres on both sides of the fire, projecting forwards into the room. I thought it was pretty hideous because it was was way too big and dominating and it also seemed to absorb the light as it is not a well lit room. So I borrowed a jack hammer and over the weeks, in the evenings, I took the stone walls down which stretched about 70cm each side too. It was a bit task and I took out a lot of stone. Then I found the two RSJs. I think I said on another post, I couldn't understand why there were two, one on top of the other, so I took one out. BIG mistake. The room above is my bedroom and I noticed when I went to bed, the floor had dropped by 4". Ooops!

Agree with others. It's an original cast iron fireplace. Painting it would be wrong decision for both aesthetic and material reasons. If you don't like the polished metal look then talk to a specialist in antique fireplaces and they can help with how to achieve a blackened patina. But without clutter and a neutral or lovely farrow and ball colour on the wall like drainpipe it would be stubbing. Tile is hard to assess in image but may be original. And in this case best to leave. If not to taste then cover with a thick piece of slate cut to size that can rest on top and be reversed later if desired.

Difficult to tell from the image quite what this is (other Houzzers may know) - to achieve that sort of style, you could go for a few options: - A large format ceramic tile (I have one supplier who does 3m x 1m tiles!) - A product such as Dekton, Neolith or Jetstone - Polished concrete - Stone veneers. Try googling these for more info.

Of course. The dimensions would depend on the size of the fireplace/burner you would be going for. The opening would have to be made of non-flammable material, such as brick, stone, metal, porcelain tiles, Vermiculite Board, etc. You could use non-flammable paint over that. For example, our freestanding baskets like the one Richard posted above need 60 cm clearance from the bottom to the top; or if you wanted a contemporary line of fire look you could go for our Regulating Bio Containers like the one in the photo below - all required dimensions are available in the brochure with building advice on our website. We hope that helps :) Good luck with the project!