This faux marble commission was for a couple near Milton Keynes. They had bought an old Victorian house and were in the midst of some large-scale renovations. Amongst the original features were two slate fireplaces. This was the one in the lounge, and though in terrible repair it had all the original tiles and could be made to look wonderful again.

Hand painted marble effects were very fashionable in the nineteenth and early twentieth Century and this had inspired the owners to seek out a faux marble painter to restore their once beautiful fireplaces to their original Victorian look.

As you can see from the ‘before’ picture above, the fireplace had undergone many a transformation over the years. During the sanding stage I unearthed many layers including, blue paint, black paint, a faux wood effect, a faux marble effect and finally the boldest choice, the bright red.

The top itself was actually wood, though the rest was real slate. Perhaps the top got cracked at some point and then replaced, we will probably never know, but one thing was for sure, this fireplace had had many lives. Restoring it to its original Victorian faux marble effect was a bit of a labour of love but still an absolute pleasure to do. Knowing you’ve transformed something that many would have just thrown on the skip is incredibly satisfying. Alongside the creation of the painted marble effect I also brought out some of the hood detailing with a hint of bronze, matching the line detailing I did to frame the panels. To further tie the tiles in I used small amounts of burnt umber (a ruddy brown), to warm up the colour and also balance the bronze.

If you’d like to learn more about this particular project, see more ‘before, during and after’ images and see how I went about things, please see my project Blog for this commission – http://imaginativeinteriors.co.uk/imitation-painted-marble-fireplace/

Here are a couple of images of the fireplace I painted in the dining room. If you’d like to see more then please click here to visit the project page.

Lee works as a faux finish painter throughout Yorkshire, and is within easy reach for projects in Harrogate, Leeds, York, Wetherby, Otley, Ilkley, Ripon, Skipton, Wakefield, Halifax, and all the surrounding areas.