*Updated on 4/12/13 to include information at the bottom about the bricks inside the hearth.
Since I’m still not ready to show detailed pictures of every room of our new house (I’m working on them, I promise!), I thought I’d start with some cool features and resources that we came across. One of the neatest, I think, is our cast stone mantel.
While we were looking through tons of home magazines and being watchful for ideas that we came across in our everyday life, Jason and I fell in love with the idea of a limestone fireplace. You can see some examples of what we loved on Houzz here, here, and here. We felt like a fireplace of this style would work well in our French Eclectic home and would help give the library/office a more masculine feel.
However, after looking at our budget and talking with our builder, we quickly found that we were definitely not going to be able to afford a real limestone fireplace. So we started looking and researching some other resources where we might be able to find a cast stone fireplace that looked like limestone but at a fraction of the cost.
We were relieved to hear from our builder that he had just put a cast stone mantel in another client’s house and that it looked and felt and sounded great. The unlikely source (in my mind) for this great, cost effective cast stone mantel? Mantels Direct
We looked through their products and decided to go with the York Majestic Series Stone Fireplace Mantel in Natural. We felt like it fit best with the feel of our house and so we let our builder handle the ordering process. Since the fireplace was custom sized for our house, and our builder handled all the details, we were hopeful that we would get a perfect looking fireplace that was just what we wanted but at a fraction of the cost of a real stone fireplace!
I am happy to report that we are just as happy now with our fireplace as we were when we placed the order. It is beautiful and looks, feels, and sounds just like a full stone fireplace. Our neighbor asked if we had the stone imported from the fireplace and, while some might not be, I was proud to tell her of our great “internet buy”!
*Another site that makes and ships these is Old World Stoneworks, but we ended up not buying from them because we didn’t know anyone who had purchased one from them.
*After getting a comment about whether or not the bricks in the hearth came with the mantel I wanted to clarify. We had a FireRock fireplace built in the house and that is where those bricks came from. I asked the stonemason to lay those bricks in a herringbone pattern instead of the traditional brick joint pattern. What came from Mantels Direct was the mantel and column supports, the stone facing surrounding the hearth opening, and the stone piece on the floor in front of the hearth.
*I was in no way compensated for this post and it falls under my link/review disclosures.
Janice
April 12, 2013 at 12:31 amHi Jennifer,
That fireplace looks amazing! I’m a huge advocate for using cast stone for other decorations as well, such as vases and planters. Why pay through the teeth when you can pay much less for something that look just as good or better, right?
Did the brick work in the hearth come with the piece or was it done separately by your builder?
Regards,
Janice
Jennifer
April 12, 2013 at 6:13 pmThanks Janice! Thanks for stopping by! That’s a great question and I’ll answer it in a post so that others can know too. But the herringbone pattern in the brick in the fireplace was put in by the guys who put in the actual fireplace flue. It’s an Isokern fireplace and I asked them to lay the bricks in a herringbone pattern instead of on a typical brick joint. I like the extra touch that it gives it! Thanks!
Mike Jung
September 6, 2013 at 12:10 pmGreat Blog! Old World Stoneworks has sold all over to include internationally. We offer references from whichever state you reside. Our website offers testimonials. As well as Facebook and Houzz. Most importantly, I am glad you like your surround.