Your home looks like it has wonderful possibilities. How exciting for you! I have a few inspiration photos below for you showing fireplace redo's but you might want to spend some time in the photo section under modern and 'fireplace' in the search box to see all the possibilities available. Hover over each photo to expand. To see details, click on the photo name. So how modern do you want to go?

If that is cultured stone, you could etch it to lighten it.

http://www.ehow.com/how_7789936_change-color-cultured-stone.html

Here is another one with limestone. I think you will have to get rid of or cover over your existing stone to get the smooth lines for a modern look. The stone in your FP is rustic, which was all the rage back then :)

We have a similar dilemma. What did you end up doing?

Depending on budget. People are whitewashing their red bricks. I imagine it could work for stone. I found a couple photos here.

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I like the stone I think it is the mortar color that is making it look dated. You may want to play with lightning the mortar color and working with the current stone.

This is what we are dealing with.

Or add more charcoal to the scheme and keep the grey mortar. I would pay to get that fire put in to some projects exactly as is.

Agree...it's gorgeous. The yellow/cream color you have on the walls is highlighting the worst in the stone...play with grays and charcoals. BM Mineral Ice and Hearthstone.

That's great fireplace. Design the room around it.

Jason, I think that when the rest is updated, the existing stone will look completely different to you. Covering the stone will delete personality from the room. If you must do something, look at MCM mantel styles and perhaps add one.

I'd definitely keep the interest of the stone in the room :)

We used a horizontal blue stone and slate combination on a fireplace and it came out wonderful. Gave a nice modern look and was quick to install.

@hertz and Dunn, that looks very nice. What's the size of the stone tiles and what substrate did you use? Could it be applied directly to a brick surface?

The bluestones have a dimension of 1.5 inches in height and a 2 inch depth. The slate between them have a 1.75 inch depth. This way the bluestone stays a little prominent from the darker slate giving the appearance of greater depth. The fireplace was originally a classic 4 inch stone veneer which was removed back to the substrate and then we applied a thin set mortar before setting the stones. I would recommend installing the wire lathing to the surface of the brick then applying a scratch coat before adding any other masonry on top of it.

Thank you for your comments and suggestions!

I guess the lathe will make the facade even? That would be nice and I really like your idea of skim coating with concrete, it will create an interesting finish. The fireplace may become a great focal point.

Did you ever find a solution? I've been looking at the same ugly type fireplace for a few years now, and today I finally took down the mantel. I've been thinking of drywalling over it, doing a plank wall on the top, and airstone on the bottom.

I have no solution. We're thinking of keeping it the way it is for now.

When in doubt rip it out

Yea I know it is corny but don't just settle because you don't want extra work

Just torn out some stone on my house and we are so happy.


It creates a clean slate and you start over.

Well, it really depends on what you find behind the rock. I'll start working on my fireplace this week and keep you posted on the progress. My fireplace is just as hideous at the moment.

You won't want the mess of deconstructing later after your house is all done and decorated. From the pictures, you have quite a bit of major construction going on so now would be the time to rip it out if that's what you're thinking. Easier to do that than try to cover over it with another product. Good luck!

Yea you will find brick or stone that is it.

Rent a jack hammer bosh from Home Depot or a local rental place if you get it on a Friday or Saturday you can save money by returning it on Monday.

I know it sounds dumb but if you rent something on a Friday or Saturday they only charge you for that day and they don't count Sunday because obviously you cannot return it.

Home Depot though you have to return it because they are always open. So the local place maybe more expensive to rent at first but because you get basically 2 days for free they are normally cheaper.

I had the same fugly 70's fireplaces (2), which both dated and overwhelmed the entire house. To remove the concrete stone, I used a $200 rotary hammer from Home Depot (that later became the tool of choice for removing the stucco all around the house). It took about a day for each fireplace, being as careful as possible not to disturb the brick behind. We did not find any chicken wire/mud coat beneath the stone, but we did find lots of dead mice, a big dead rat, and a mummified cat.

We were both horrified and relieved to find that the fireplaces were apparently not well designed, so our demolition efforts revealed significant soot and char on the drywall outside the firebox. When it comes to finding problems, I'd rather know than live in ignorance, so I was okay with the added scope of work to fix everything.

After much debate, we finally decided we didn't need two fireplaces in our smaller house, so one we ended up taking down altogether. For the fireplace we kept, we used a fireplace specialist to rebuild the edge of the firebox and make sure it was both fire safe and structurally stable. The one we kept will be sheathed in a travertine paver I found on Craigslist. Even without the travertine (we're moving along slower than originally planned), the difference in the room is gratifying.

I would whitewash or paint it. Doesn't cost much. If you don't like it you can consider other options.

Decided the rock needed to stay. Built a floating walnut mantle and need to finish off building the rest of the shelves. Had to keep a bit of the house intact after gutting the rest of it.

Don't destroy too much of the soul of the house. Geez.