Five Important Decisions in Designing a Stone Veneer Fireplace

This week I'm blogging about the transformation of my family room fireplace and built-in bookcases:

In case you missed it, in Monday's post I blogged about painting the bookcases and adding new moulding and hardware.  Today I'm going to give you the low-down on designing the stone veneer fireplace. I thought it would be as simple as walking into the showroom of the fireplace/stone veneer dealer, picking my stone, and scheduling the installation - silly girl, when has any project ever been that easy?! Without boring you with the play-by-play, this seemingly easy task quickly became very frustrating, time-consuming, and stressful.  It all could have been prevented if going into the project I had information about the choices I would need to make and a little guidance on how to make them. My goal with this post is to make the process much, much easier for any of you embarking on a similar project. So, without further ado: 

1. Do you want to use natural or manufactured (also known as "cultured") stone veneer?  The pros of manufactured stone are that it is much less expensive than natural stone and (because it is lighter than natural stone) it is also simpler and less expensive to install.  The pro of natural stone is its beauty - there is variation in each and every stone and the end product is gorgeous. If you have a large budget, natural stone is a great choice and may be the way for you to go but I chose manufactured stone veneer to stay within my budget. Considering the amount of money I saved and how close my manufactured stone veneer looks to the "real thing", I'm still very happy with my decision.  




2. What style and color of stone should you choose? There are many different styles of stone to choose from including fieldstone,

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stacked stone,

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and river rock 

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among many others. You can also use a combination of two different types of stone such as fieldstone and ledgestone.  Each style of manufactured stone comes in several color options, making the range of choices mindboggling.  I ended up choosing a ledgestone (StoneCraft Industries' Ledgestone) in warm shades of gray and tan ("Pennsylvania" color):

The best way to choose the style and color of stone is to visit a few showrooms that have fireplaces on display with various stone options.  Once you've narrowed down your selections by taking into consideration the colors and style of your home, ask to borrow some sample boards so that you can see how the stone looks in your home.  If the showroom doesn't have sample boards that they loan out, ask if you can borrow several pieces of stone (get a good variety in size and color) for each of your possible options.




3. Do you want to incorporate any keystones or other stone trim into your fireplace design?  The best way to make this decision is to seek inspiration online (think Pinterest!) and in fireplace showrooms.  While I chose a basic layout without keystones or other stone trim, you could chose to do a keystone arch surrounding the fireplace opening:

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a row of single-height trim stones above the fireplace opening, 

one long, single stone above the fireplace opening,

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or any other design/pattern of trim stone that you can dream up!  My advice - keep it simple with either no keystones/trim or a simple design like one of the pics above. 




4. Do you want to have a mantel and, if so, what type?  If you'd like to have a mantel, it is ideally installed in conjunction with the stone veneer so this decision should be made along with the selection of your stone. There are several different materials that can be used to create a mantel, such as stone, 

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painted wood,

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and natural or stained wood:

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Emily Followill via Things That Inspire

My fireplace obviously has no mantel - not because I made a conscious decision not to have one but because I hadn't thought to make plans for one before the time of the stone installation.  I like the clean look of not having a mantel, but I definitely have some jealousy over the pretty mantel displays that you gals have for the holidays! 




5. How would you like your hearth to be designed?  Most of the stone veneer manufacturers carry hearthstones designed to coordinate with your chosen stone veneer. However, beware - the hearthstones that were meant to go with the stone veneer that I chose were ugly and fake looking.  The lesson here is to make sure you ask to see the coordinating hearthstones and not just assume that they will look just as good as the stone veneer you chose!  If you don't like what you see, shop around - I was able to find hearthstones that I liked from a different manufacturer:    

Also consider how you want your hearthstones laid - you can lay them the typical way like I did or choose to have them broken up with mortar in between the pieces:

Another option to consider is using natural stone for the hearth even if you used manufactured stone veneer for the rest of the fireplace.  When natural stone is used, it's typically in a large slab such as this bluestone slab hearth:

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The natural stone costs more than manufactured hearthstones but for most fireplaces it's not too large of an area so the difference in cost may be doable. 




Thanks for hanging in there through my list of five important decisions in designing a stone veneer fireplace! I know it's not the most exciting of topics, but for those of you embarking on a fireplace remodel project, I hope the info will be helpful.  Check back in later this week for the final post on transforming my fireplace and built-in bookcases including a DIY tutorial on lining the back of bookcases with burlap!

DIY Project: Burlap Backed Bookcases

Today's post wraps up my week of blogging about the revamp of our family room fireplace and built-in bookcases (Monday's post detailed painting the bookcases and adding new moulding and hardware and Wednesday's post was a low-down on designing the stone veneer fireplace).  

Now we're on to my favorite part of the project - lining the back of the bookcases with burlap! I knew that I wanted to break up the sea of white by doing something different with the back of the bookcases and had originally planned on using paint or wallpaper but was worried that adding too much color or pattern would limit the type of things that I could style the shelves with.  After working with my daughter to sew burlap bunnies for Easter, the idea to use burlap for the back of the bookcases was born! I decided to use small upholstery tacks around the edges to anchor it to the bookcase and add a decorative touch, creating a look similar to the burlap back of my favorite chair!:

So here's the easy DIY tutorial:

Supplies for the project are pretty basic: (1) yardage of burlap that is at least 3" inches wider and longer than the measurements of your bookcase, (2) steel upholstery tacks, and (3) a tack hammer. I got my burlap and tacks from Hobby Lobby and already had a tack hammer on hand but if you don't, you can pick one up for under $5 at Harbor Freight.

Start out by cutting your piece of burlap so that it is about 4" longer and 4" wider than the back of your bookcase. Iron out the wrinkles. One of your four edges will be a straight, "finished" edge (the original edge on the bolt of fabric) whereas the other three edges are probably a bit uneven because they have been cut - uneven is ok at this point!  Starting with your finished edge, fold over 1" of burlap along the entire length of the side and iron it down, keeping the ironed edge as straight as possible. Next, do the same thing (fold down and iron) along the entire length of one of the neighboring sides, making sure that your folded edge is straight and that there is a minimum of 1" of burlap folded over along the entire length of the edge. Then, using the measurements of the height and width of your bookcase back, fold down and iron the length of the other two sides of your burlap piece so that the height and width of your burlap match that of the bookcase back. The final step to prepare your burlap is to cut the entire length of the three unfinished burlap edges exactly 1" from the ironed edge - do so by using a yard stick or tape measure and marking a straight 1" line with a fabric marking pen or chalk:  

Once you have done this to all three unfinished edges, the back of your piece of burlap should look something like this all of the way around:

Why is it important for the folded over burlap to have a straight edge? Due to the loose weave of burlap, when you attach it to your bookcase, the 1" piece that is folded under will show through the front and create the look of a border so you want it to be neat and even:  

The last step before you get out the hammer and tacks is to do a little math - you want your tacks to be evenly spaced all the way around. Using the measurements of the length and width of the back of your bookcase, figure out a spacing that will work for you.  I ended up putting my tacks about 3" apart.  Finally, start nailing in your tacks - start with the top edge, then do each side, then do the bottom edge.  I kept a short ruler in my hand which I was hammering the tacks to keep them at the desired spacing.  I recommend that initially you not hammer the tacks all the way in - hammer them in just enough that they are holding the burlap firmly in place.  This way, if your spacing gets off and you need to pull out any of the tacks and move them, it's easy to do.  Once you've gone all the way around the edge of your burlap, if you're happy with the spacing of the tacks go back around with the hammer and nail them in all the way. Done!

I'm loving the warmth and texture that the burlap adds to the room and that the burlap is a neutral backdrop that gives me a lot of flexibility in how I style the shelves. Speaking of styling my shelves, I used a lot of the frames, etc. that I had on the shelves before the makeover but also added some new elements based on some of the inspiration photos I collected on my "styling bookcases" Pinterest board.  The styling is much better than it used to be but still definitely needs some tweaking - add it to the list of works in progress...

Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy your weekend!