Essentially, the fireplace facing is of antique bricks in the traditional reddish. We have a raised hearth that is topped with a Connecticut Bluestone slab. I *think* like yours, the slab does NOT extend (left to right) past the brick facing, as you look at it straight on. The outside edges are flush. Also like yours, the brick facing above the hearthstone protrudes one brick's depth into the room out of the drywall. (Our hearthstone is set on a solid base of bricks; it's not cantilevered.) Am I getting yours right?

Our brick facing is about five-feet-high (floor to the top of the top brick, so there is a little ledge, one brick deep).

We did *not* want to cover up all the brick around the actual fireplace--plus, that bit I told you about it being against the law here, anyway J.

Nonetheless, I think there would be a way to adapt what we did to your configuration, either to create only a surround, with a mantle above the arch, or to initiate a frame off of which you could box in as much as you want.

Remember the style I am describing is an Early American motif (Georgian-Federal vernacular).

I think I told you we built this mostly from scrap pieces left over from building the house.

We have plank old-growth pine floors, which are grooved on the underside for installation.

1. We cut two lengths (6 each) of the flooring and flipped them over, because the undersides look like Georgian fluted millwork.

So those, one on each side, snug up to the brick facing/hearth, and set right down to the floor, became our decorative pilasters.

We attached them to the drywall with adhesive AND screws, into the studs and then countersunk and puttied in.

Once the fluted boards were up, we applied cut two one-foot-long pieces of floor planks and affixed them, smooth side out, to serve as the plinths at the bottom of the fluted boards. We put decorative egg-and-dart strip molding at the top of the plinths, to finish them.

Our pilasters and plinths look *something* like those in the first photo on this link (the one labeled "Late Federal Mantle"):

http://www.francisjpurcell.com/searchresults.php3?antique_mantel=1.00&justonce=5150&searchstring=

2. Again, keep in mind for later reference that the pilasters are six feet high.

3. We took another length of the flooring, again flipped over to feature the "fluting", and cut it to a length equal to the horizontal measurement of left pilaster plus brick facing plus right pilaster.

We set that horizontally atop the pilasters, so that the outside edges are flush.

We affixed it to the dry wall by the same process, adhesive and screws in the studs.

If you picture what was on the wall at this point, it would have looked like the wooden frame of a soccer net--two supports with a horizontal lintel above.

3. Again, from the floor, the pilasters are each six feet high, extending vertically one foot higher than the top of the brick facing, with the horizontal lintel above them.

We next took a foot-wide board, and cut it to a length that fit ALMOST exactly *within* the two pilasters. We actually cut it so that it would be about a quarter inch shy on each side. (So we could have "expansion joints", to accommodate humidity and fireplace heat, filled in cosmetically with putty and painted.)

Eventually, this was destined to cover the drywall (horizontally) between the pilasters and (vertically) between the top ledge of the brick and the bottom of the "soccer net" lintel.

4. But first we had to attach a mantel in the middle of that filler board, BEFORE affixing it to the wall.

We wanted something substantial, that looked like actual millwork, versus a plain straight board. (But one could do it with something simple, too, like a single plank mantle.)

We stacked (using plenty of wood glue and nails or screws or both--dont remember that detail) lengths of left-over baseboards and decorative trim (e.g., dentil molding on the bottom). We cut the lengths all the same, but the various boards had different depths. We stacked them deepest to narrowest, top to bottom. So, on the top, I think, a seven or eighth in board, suitable for a mantle shelf, to hold accessories, down to the shallow dentil strip molding.

Each piece had a different edge, so, when you stack them vertically, it ended up looking like 5- or 6-inch high piece of "fancy" crown moulding--a complex ogee edge.

When we had that all together, we nailed, screwed and glued that filler board I told you about under #3 to the back of the stacked trim (now our mantle). Vertically, the mantle is probably 5-6 inches top to bottom, which left several inches each top and bottom to screw that entire section into the drywall studs, once we fitted that whole unit into the space above the fireplace bricks and below that top piece of fluted floorboard.

All those hodgepodge molding pieces, assembled, look *something* like this mantlepiece:

http://www.artsparx.com/images/mantle15714.gif

(Look only at the mantle itself here. It's sort of what happened when where we stacked the boards and decorative pieces.)

5. Once that filler board (with the mantle projecting out of it) was attached to the drywall, we had in place, all done, looking like one unit although we did it in sections, fluted pilasters with plinths and decorative period detail; and a two-foot-high frieze with a mantle in the center of it.

We bought an unfinished pine Georgian motif scroll applique (about 5 bucks) and affixed it below the mantle shelf and above the brick.

We had two leftover Georgian shell appliques on small blocks. We attached those, one each in each upper corner of the whole unit.

At this point, the only detail left to finish was to cover the top ledge of the brick facing with a piece of L-shape molding and little end caps. I spare you any more tedium, since you won't have to worry about that.

Have I been totally confusing? Really frustrating, trying to describe it versus sending a photo.

Butwhether you decide to keep the arch or notI wonder if you could first put up pilasters on the side and use them to start your framework.

Since you want to cover your brick, you could use thicker boards than we had to--something thick enough so that, in profile, it would be flush with the front of your brick facing. Or if you use a light-weight wood (ours was--it was pine), you could glue two thickness together and then affix them on each side of the brick.

In that way, you could probably find a way to rest a mantlepiece and some box framing to cover up whatever brick you wish to.

I hear you about the story about your elegant friend. That's what I want to avoid -- the feeling that things just somehow don't go with the house. I'm in a split entry house and it's just so modern compared to my furniture. My last home accommodated my furniture better, with taller narrower windows, no split entry, etc. -- even though it was just a few years older than this one. I hate the big wide windows in this house... and they're so expensive to cover compared to the narrower ones. Oh well.

Thanks for the directions, Maggie. I can tell they weren't easy to write. I think I can visualize it. My situation is I'll have to wait to see how cleanly the arch will come off -- if I get brave enough to bust it off. I suspect I'll need to do some tiling around the fire box face to cover up any scars left by the arch. The arch really should go if I intend to make anything nice looking there. I'm just not sure if there are any rods supporting the arch. Once the arch is gone, then I'd be free to do different things.

Do you have a picture of what you did?