Mantel mania - fireplace fronts - Brief Article

Sunset, Feb, 2001 by Peter O. Whiteley

The many materials, styles, and costs of today's fireplace fronts

A mantel can make a room. It adds scale, color, texture, and style to the fireplace while providing a prominent display shelf for family photos, objets d'art, and seasonal decor. Here's how to find one that suits your taste and pocketbook.

Mantels are made from a wide selection of materials, including concrete, wood, stone, metal, gypsum, plaster, and even glass. The typical prefabricated full-surround mantel frames the firebox opening with panels, pilasters, or columns and is topped with a shelf. The simplest version is a floating "shelf mantel."

Non-wood-burning fireplaces provide new mantel design possibilities. For example, "direct vent" gas-burning units require no chimney. Instead, they vent the hot gases horizontally through exhaust pipes. As a result, they can be placed completely inside a room, which means that mantels used around these units can be deep, fully encasing the firebox.

Planning for a mantel

Start by visiting a store specializing in fireplaces and related equipment. There you'll find floor models and catalogs. Or, do an Internet search for "fireplace mantels."

Manufacturers offer ready-made mantels in a variety of sizes as well as custom-size units. A full-service manufacturer can adjust the size of its mantels to suit your particular fireplace, hearth, surrounding walls, adjacent windows, and local fire codes.

Mantels made from noncombustible materials such as plaster, concrete, and stone can be built close to the firebox opening without an intervening surround of marble, slate, or tile. However, you can use a noncombustible material on the surface immediately around the firebox to introduce another color or texture, like the mat surrounding a framed painting. Ceramic and stone tiles, brick, metal, cast concrete, and even tempered glass are among the possibilities.

Design tip: To help you envision your dream mantel, tape off its projected size and shape on the wall around your fireplace.

Safety tip: If the mantel you want is made of a combustible material like wood, check with your local fire department and building code officials for current regulations. They mandate the distance that such materials must be from the firebox opening--including how far a mantel shelf can project.

Materials and costs

Regardless of material, off-the-shelf mantels always offer savings over custom-made models. The least expensive surround mantel is made of a paint-grade medium-density fiberboard. One with modest detailing, such as the Chesterton offered by the Mantel Shop in Arizona (888/3675771 or www.mantelshop.com), includes routed fluting and layered bull-nose trim and costs about $280. The same design in paintable poplar runs about $300; it's $460 for oak that's ready to stain.

* Cast stone. Old World Stoneworks (800/600-8336; www.oldworldstoneworks. com) makes a cast stone product that replicates the look of hand-cut limestone. Their product line includes spare, clean-lined architectural mantels and ones that appear to be ornately carved. Prices run from $1,100 to about $5,700, depending on style.

* Glass-fiber reinforced gypsum.

Such mantels from Balmer Studios (416/491-6425 or www.balmerstudios. com) also have ornate detailing achieved by casting in molds. The company works well with marble or granite inset surrounds to achieve a classic look. Ornate center panels can be added to its models, from $950 to about $1300.

* Plaster. Mantels made of plaster offer a very smooth finish and, because they are poured in molds, a level of intricate detail not usually achieved by wood carving. They can be painted to blend with surrounding wood trim. Models from a company such as A Plus (404/373-7587 or www.aaplusinc.com) cost from $205 to $890.

* Precast concrete. These mantels can be ordered in a wide spectrum of colors to complement most decors. They can be finished in various ways, from sandblasted to smooth to acidwashed. Here, as with gypsum, glass-fiber reinforcing strengthens and lightens the mantels, which can be made in one piece or in modules. Prices range from $150 to over $4,300, depending on size and complexity, at Concrete Designs Incorporated (800/279-2278).

* Stone. The most handsome and timeless of materials is stone such as marble, granite, limestone, or slate. Mantels made of these materials take advantage of the color and texture of the stone, but the fabrication makes them expensive; antique stone mantels are especially pricey. Imported machine-carved marble mantels start at $700; hand-carved stone mantels begin around $2,500 at Jerong Products (510/782-2888 or www.jerongmarble.com).

* Wood. The best wood mantels are like pieces of heirloom furniture. You can order them in different hardwoods (such as oak, cherry, or maple) and with various finishes.

The products from Colorado-based Collinswood Designs (877/626-8357 or www.collinswooddesigns.com), for example, are made from kiln-dried hardwoods, finished with deep-penetrating stains, and then sealed with hand-rubbed finishes. Mantels can be ordered unfinished, finished, and even with custom carvings. The customized Stratford model finished in dark cherry costs about $1,600; it can be ordered with a secret compartment that is handy for storing jewelry or other small valuables.