Installing Our Edwardian Fireplace

When we viewed Lyndale House for the first time, we knocked on a few of the chimney breasts and thought about how the rooms would look with original Edwardian fireplaces installed.

The front room fireplace was boarded up and wallpapered. We couldn't wait to install an Edwardian Fireplace and bring back some of the original character to the room. Ebay became our best friend, eventually we found the perfect Edwardian fireplace, that looked similar to the one found in the dining room.

Original Edwardian Fireplace Tiles

We took a trip to the Antiques Village in Levenshulme, home to the Antique Fireplace Restoration Company and perused the vast array of original tiles. They had everything from highly decorative Art Noveau tiles to plan glazed tiles. After two trips we finally made a decision to go ahead and purchase a set of plain green tiles with a feature tile and stripes. The green colour on the tiles is reflected in the stained glass on the windows, so looks like it was meant to be.

Quarry Tiles

For the hearth we opted for plain terracotta quarry tiles from c20 Century Fireplaces in Stockport. This meant a fun jaunt down to their workshop to pick up a box and hurry back in time for the builders arriving.

Behind the wallpaper

Luckily when we cut a hole in the wall to see what was behind the wallpaper, we discovered perfectly preserved red bricks and an existing hole. This made life a lot easier, as it only meant having to fix the surround to the wall and do the tiling. We enlisted the help of Dan Macdonald who has been brilliant helping us with our kitchen and other projects throughout the property so far.

Breached Chimney

When we had the survey done on Lyndale House we found out that the chimney was "breached", so we are unable to install a fully functioning fire, for now. With Christmas approaching we got creative with a bag of logs and some festoon lights.

These pictures show the fireplace at Christmas time, the walls are still bare lime plaster as the room is still work in progress.

Although there is still work to be done, we are tremendously happy with how the Edwardian Fireplace Installation went. When you sit in the front room it is hard to imagine a time before the fireplace was there.

It fills us with so much joy to see the home being restored with original features and details.

Thank you for following our home renovation journey.