Thank you Hallett! Next time the tiler is in the house (to finish the bathrooms) - I'll see what they think.

I think both are non working FPs so you can do whatever you like I agree the brick looks like a add on but hard to tell. I think if you can get the tile and the brick off with some elbow grease then some nice tile would be an easy fix . I kind of like the surround in the LR but not the pieces of wood standing up in the opening

Thank you, Patricia. You're correct - these are non-working FPs. Because the dining room is next to the LR and the FP is in the line of vision, I'd like to keep the tiles the same for both. At least, I think that might make more sense with two different surrounds. Any suggestions for tiles that would not look out of place in a Queen Anne style San Francisco house with owners who like more clean and modern aesthetics?

If these are old photos, what does the decor look like now? The rusty stuff and deteriorated finish on the mantel is very distracting. Hard to know what to suggest as a tile without know if those things are now out of the picture and what finish the woodwork now has.

Right now - there's nothing but dust in the room as we do extensive renovations to the house. We are open to decor. The only item we'll have for certain is a version of the following table - larger at 84" long in walnut (like the photo).

I meant: What does the FP mantel wood look like now? Is it painted or has it been sanded and refinished? What does the grate look like now?

PS: To me it looks like previous owners picked up vintage mantels from salvage brokers and slapped them over something.

The mantels look the same as in pictures. We haven't changed them.

So I personally would want to remove the grates and possibly cover them with new grates or paint the more ornate black one a paler color, and then, even if I didn't refinish the woods in the mantels to a gloss (I think they really are a hodgepodge, each one of them looks cobbled together from more than one mantle) -- I would at least lightly sand, clean, touch up and oil them

I'm not sure what's technically possilbe -- how much thickness your FPs can take, whether you can remove that red brick veneer -- but this tile would interest me to cover the blue brick (Wabi Sabi via Tilebar)

I might do the surround vertically and the hearth horizontally

and for the other, also from Tile Bar, Nature Flower Lava Pebble

Thank you!

Ask your tiler for separate numbers to remove the red bricks, and retile with something you choose. If you can do the demolition, then you may be able to professionally retile both.

Is a “refresh” of the mantles a possibility or do you want to leave them as is? They can be sanded and re-stained, or painted. If both are non-working fireplaces, you can do whatever works with your own sense of design.

I can’t help but think someone found two similar mantles somewhere and decided to buy them on the spot. They’re pretty, but the wood tone may not fit with your furnishings. What is the style of your house? Colonial?

Love the new table!

It depends on whether you want to keep the historic character of the house or just go for something you love. I'd imagine that 100 years or so ago most fireplace surrounds were brick, stone, or plain tile.

Thank you RedRyder and acm. In person, the mantles don't look so beat up as they do in these photos. Esp the blue brick one - what looks like dirt is variation in the grain of the wood. The house is a Queen Anne style in SF - what often gets called a Victorian in the city. My husband and I are not handy so we need to hire folks to do this.

I wonder if the blue brick's mantle is composed of one ornate box from a smaller mantle (or cabinet?) but the wood behind it just a square frame a carpenter put together out of new-bought wood and molding to make it fit the larger space, glued on the decorative box and gave everything a similar stain.