We were on a very tight budget renovating our rental home. A little paint works wonders sometimes!

Before and after

Before and after (as the house is now so warm, I tend to use candles and have leant a mirror against the back of the fireplace when not in use!)

What is interesting about the before and afters of many of these is that what is before for some is after for many! :)

This project started out as a low hung, misplaced beam and structural issue. The homeowners wanted a space to entertain that was not so dark and dreary. As you can see by the before's, the builder had installed a dropped ceiling to hide a structural issue. By replacing the existing beam, with a micro-laminate, we were able to eliminate the dropped ceiling and add an additional window and recessed lights. The space had been quite dark, also part of the problem. By adding a new mantle and painting the fireplace white it helped to brighten and open the space. The homeowners also had little storage for books. By adding the bookshelves, also painted white. the space opened up. A creamy Ivory paint (a touch of yellow always makes things brighter) and new furniture arrangement, made the room cheerful and inviting! *As featured in Life@home Magazine.

This wood burning fireplace is a zero clearance installation designed and built by Bruce Jones of Longford Mills ON.

I refaced my brick fireplace with a mosaic glass and stone tile, mounted a new custom chocolate brown mantle and added glass doors. The hearth is black marble.

Love all the remodels we just put one in, I used over 7000 pennies to cover it

LOL Best use of pennies I've heard of!! How awesomely creative.

Love the pennies!!! I've seen pictures of that done as flooring too. I bet it was tedious, but looks great!!!

This is a room scene photo from one of our tile vendors, Daltile. How sexy is this fireplace!! LOVE it!!!

We fabricated and installed a backlit mitered glass fireplace. The surround material was 3 cm "Chorus" Glass2 with a 3 cm Absolute Black Honed Granite hearth w/beveled edges.

The homeowner wanted a fireplace that was old world and simple. The former fireplace was red brick and black tile.

Just curious what the light source was? I would assume some sort of LED? it's really nice!!!

Travertine stone fireplace with Calcutta stone accents, textured wall covering, wall mounted flat screen with 2-piece custom frame, and beautiful dark cherry custom cabinetry.

We did our living room and I build the fire place and chandelier

I'll just throw a couple of recent examples out. Here's a traditional unvented gas fireplace being replaced with a modern direct vent fireplace:

Lovely .Our fireplace is a wood burning unit

Here's another unvented gas fireplace being replaced with a vented one - and adding a little character while we're at it (two before, two after):

lovely

New home owner asked us to design and fabricate a custom mantle for her stone fireplace. We "remade" this fire place by simply adding a customized traditional wooden mantle. Our craftsman cut around each stone assuring a perfect fit. See before and after!

Here's another recent one. The original fireplace is "Builder blah" with some odd tile that the owner hated. The rework includes a heat-efficient fireplace and some T&G paneling that makes the fireplace a focal point on that tall wall. The new version is a much better backdrop for the homeowners' art and collections

This is not meant to be a detractor from these great projects, but there are a number shown here where there is combustible material (wood) installed too closely to the fireplace in the "after" photos. Please be very careful to observe all codes and manufacturer's requirements when you are working around fire!
All of the projects below are someone else's "after" that I saw last month, and all are quite dangerous.

And for that reason, we had a professional install our wood-burning unit as to specifications. Another reason we chose not to have a mantel

Here in GA, each county has specific codes for where you must have non-flammable materials. Also, you must make sure that the paint used should be heat resistant.

Jkins683, was your brick taken off by you or did you have a contractor do the job?? I'm considering the same thing for my outdated brick fireplace. I'm wondering about the demolition part of the job and what it entails. Thanks for any input!

Here is the redo of our brick fireplace.

http://www.houzz.com/pro/akearney/annette-kearney
Matisse majolica tiles....custom designed

A client added our halo sconces to emphacize the lines of this sculptural fireplace.

It looks like a couple of you used Realstone! We love hearing about your DIY and other projects with our stone. Be sure to share them with us if you have one! marketing@realstone.com

Had a plain wall with a honey oak mantle, recently replaced it with the cherry piece and slate tile (enhanced). Definitely a statement piece.

ugly 1970s frpl. added bookshelves/built-ins

I just finished a minor update to our 80's pink-tile fireplace with floating mantel shelf. This is an interim update until we can afford a real makeover with river rock. I used the wood from our old cedar fence that blew down over the winter. Here are the before/after pix.

Am I the only person left who LIKES traditional red brick? Wonder how long it will be before that pendulum swings back and folks are restoring these back to original?

catz1, I am with you!

Here's one for you. The red brick was old and we decided to leave it alone and celebrate the imperfections. The new surround was a harsh contrast so we painted it to create a more consistent feeling for the style of the room. Here is the whole story: http://kasswilson.com/best-of-both-worlds-2/

Here's a fireplace we did for a homeowner who didn't want a painted finish but something that had a "stone-like" look and feel. We applied a stone plaster and glazes that were tinted to match her decor. She absolutely loves it!

We updated our 70's fireplace that featured 6" terracotta tiles on the hearth and surround. There was no mantle and the entire wall was boring and awkward. We hired a handyman to remove the tile, repair the drywall where necessary and install large slate looking porcelain tiles on the hearth and smaller multicolor slate tiles on the surround. Doubling the height of the surround and adding a rustic mantle transformed the entire room. We now love our fireplace and I love decorating it for each season.

We just finished our fireplace makeover after Thanksgiving. What was suppose to take 1 week, stretched into 5. But I think it was worth it. Since regular fireplaces are becoming a thing of the past in the Sacramento, CA area because of air quality we decided to convert a fireplace to a gas insert. That required the gas line to be run the length of the house from the back alley meter to the front of the house with a stub out at the kitchen for a future remodel. We demolished the entire brick front and hearth. We replaced it only up to the mantel in order to mount the TV over it. We used ledgestone because we liked the texture it gave to the room. We had built-in cabinets added to each side with metal filigree coverings on the middle bottom cupboards, while leaving the others open with a glass shelf on the upper shelves. The countertops and mantel are made of chemically colored steel. We added surround sound as well. We still have to decide on a wall paint color, which will be done later this spring.

We remodeled our 1950s fireplace, which featured a retro-tiled hearth and bricked-up firebox. We opened up the firebox, installed a new mantel, laid Carrara marble in the hearth and tiled the fireplace surround with herringbone marble tiles. Here is the step-by-step process: http://thetracyinterior.com.au/our-fireplace-makeover/

Here's our before and after shot of our fireplace remodel. We had an old builder basic fireplace mantle that really brought the room down. We built out the surround, embedded the TV, made room for hiding speakers, put down a granite hearth, laid the veneer stone, and added on a 100 year old hand hewn mantle

In this expansion project, we were lucky enough to have a fireplace whose only drawback was someone's idea of "camouflage."

A little elbow grease can go a long way!

Before and after just finished!

We remodeled this fireplace for a bachelor in Chicago. Amazing transformation!

Remodeled fireplace, custom designed split faced travertine rock imported from Antiago, Turkey. The travertine is much more colorful than all other natural travertine rocks that vary in beige colors.

Antiago travertine with white black hues and bright graining adds depth to the surfaces of the surround wall.

The design idea of incoroperating glass with natural rock materials is somewhat different and could not have the end result you could have expected.

The Jeffrey Court Collection of hand made tiles. The 3x6 glass subway tiles have real volcanic cake painted to the surface creating a 3D effect of copper hues adding depth.to the accent around the firebox.of the new zero clearance fireplace.

The walls are 45 degrees at each edge wall creating a difficult and complex custom 45 degree angle cut to each course of rock materials installed on each side of the surround.

The same design and materials were installed on the beehive designed for place in the informal living media room.

The hearth surface was tiled with the same travertine as the walls except the tiles were cut into 12 inch squares and tumbled to give the edges the worn edges look.

This added $20k in value to the residential home. The WoW factor hit out of the ball park response was received from most everyone who viewed the property.

Great post, even though it's old.

@YogaJulie, yes, who is your housekeeper? Someone vacuumed in a totally systematic way. Almost looks like a carpet with an artistic pattern.

This was a complete makeover

We bought this house three years ago with a traditional fireplace that was electric. I wanted it updated. I had the contractor re-install the original mantle. We love it and we get lots of compliments on it

Beautiful!