The fireplace has been badly "remuddled" by previous owners - the worst offense occurring when original tiles were buried beneath fake moss-rock boulders. In a classic case of adding insult to injury, yet another owner painted the boulders a frosty white!

Not long after our client purchased the home, they set about righting these wrongs. As the began removing the fake boulders, the mortar lines of the original tile fireplace began to emerge.

The Crafted Home submitted three designs. The selected design extended tile all the way to the ceiling and included a new lighting plan, as well as a paint scheme for the living room and adjacent dining room. Boxed-beam ceiling in this 1918 Bungalow was painted when the owners bought the home, and stripping was not being considered at the time of this project.

Craftsman-style matte glazed tiles were used in varying scale to produce a double line accent that runs from the ceiling down onto the hearth, turning across the hearth and then returning back to the ceiling. Challenges included balancing the original fireplace (which was asymmetrical) in order to get matching tile widths left and right, and above and below the Birch mantle caps.

See the "before"and demolition photos in this section.