Ideas for fire surround, please?

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Sunny B
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Ideas for fire surround, please?

Post by Sunny B »

I have a horrible metal fire surround that came with the house. I can't get it off the wall, so want to put something over it or paint it - bearing in mind it might get hot.

I've given up on the idea of tiles as it would be too hard to cut them to size and I'm not sure the adhesive would stick to the metal.

Could I paint it? Or would that be a fire hazard?

I also wondered about glue gunning things on like pieces of glass or pottery but Mr Sunny thought it might get hot enough to melt the glue and they'd fall off!!

Any suggestions welcomed. I'm going to paint the surrounding wood white, BTW.

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manda
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Re: Ideas for fire surround, please?

Post by manda »

How about a stone effect in the green bit?
This is paint safe for a fire surround makeover not sure how it will be on metal though.

Hammerite do a high heat paint so that might be an option.
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AL37
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Re: Ideas for fire surround, please?

Post by AL37 »

I wouldn't use a hot glue gun as the glues melting point is quite low. You can get fire or high temp silicone that will stick to anything and it would have a bit of give in it which would acount for any expansion of the metal when it warms up. If you use normal tile adhesive I would think eventualy it would crack and the tiles fall off.
There are many heat proof and heat resistant paints out there if you do a web search for them. )t'
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AL37
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Re: Ideas for fire surround, please?

Post by AL37 »

Just another thought, You can also get inserts that look like marble designed for the job.
When we moved into this house there was a gas fire fitted, I thought the insert was real marble until I started to remove it. )t'
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Sunny B
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Re: Ideas for fire surround, please?

Post by Sunny B »

Thanks for the ideas, Al and Manda. )t'

At the moment I'm most tempted to go for some kind of heat reistant paint due to wanting it to look more funky than "grown up"! Stone and marble are a bit sophisticated for me!!

If I could get a few different colours in tester size pots I'd be well away!
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p.penn
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Re: Ideas for fire surround, please?

Post by p.penn »

Tiles? A mosiac of broken china from charity shops?
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Sunny B
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Re: Ideas for fire surround, please?

Post by Sunny B »

Helen, Al's already said that tile adhesive would probably crack and fall off )grin2(

I have got a large bag of blue and white bits of pottery I've found in fields and on beaches, but think I'll have to use them on something else. In fact I did buy a coffee table from a charity shop for that very reason, but not got round to it. :oops:
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HappyBob
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Re: Ideas for fire surround, please?

Post by HappyBob »

Hi Sunny while I cant at the moment suggest how you can jazz your fire surround up, I,m suprised that it cant be removed. I would imagine that around 12 inches or so from the top of the fire surround on each side there will be a lug hidden away under the plaster that it will be fixed to the wall via a screw. you could simply chop away the plaster till the lugs are located, unscrew the screws the then surround should come away from the wall.
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Re: Ideas for fire surround, please?

Post by julieann »

Hi Sunny, in my last house I had the same fire as you (at least from what is showing on the picture). The previous owners had tiled the inset with dark green tiles; it also had a dark wood mantel. I painted the mantel and tile inset. I used heat resistent paint on the tiled inset and it worked really well, no problems at all )t'
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silverback
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Re: Ideas for fire surround, please?

Post by silverback »

As mentioned, there are heat resistant paints, just depends on what colour you want!, if you wanted matt black for instance, you could use a BBQ paint that will adhere to metal!.


http://www.screwfix.com/search.do?fh_se ... nt%20paint
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p.penn
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Re: Ideas for fire surround, please?

Post by p.penn »

Sunny B wrote:Helen, Al's already said that tile adhesive would probably crack and fall off )grin2(


What does Al know? {rofwl}

Seriously though, tiles have been used on fire surrounds for years - the Victorians loved them. If you asked at a fire surround shop.....
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Steve valentine
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Re: Ideas for fire surround, please?

Post by Steve valentine »

Flexible tile adhesive.

The surround won't get that hot, barely warm I'd say. Stick the fire on for an hour or three and you'll see.
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Re: Ideas for fire surround, please?

Post by smartkidd »

Is it for home decoration or hotel decoration? Do you need cheap one or expensive one. In anycase you can search best of the best fireplace mantle at manteldepot.com is a fine choice based on my experience.
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Re: Ideas for fire surround, please?

Post by Richard »

Hi smartkidd,

Welcome to the Forum.

I see you come from Nepal, I'm visiting there in October so will be interested to see your variations of Fire Surrounds.

Richard )t' )t'
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manda
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Re: Ideas for fire surround, please?

Post by manda »

Mmmm and given that the mantel depot is based in California it might be a bit far to go for Sunny.... from Cornwall !!

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(¸.✰´¨(¸.✰ Manda

Living our version of the Good Life with 4 dogs, 6 cats, a cow, a few sheep, Angora Goats and ???? chooks.
Don't get your knickers in a knot..it solves nothing ~ just makes you walk funny
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