Fireplace's have become an obsession!!

When we moved into our house last year we had one open fireplace, which wasn't really to our taste but we had the added benefit of free heating in the lounge.
We also had blocked up fireplaces in the dinning room, and the 2 larger bedrooms.

As we have began to decorate the house Gavin decided to investigate what was behind the blocked up fireplaces!!

Needless to say after a lot of mess, dust & re plastering!! we now have 3 open fireplaces.

We decided to go down the Victorian/Georgian route, we like the old cast iron surrounds and thought they would look nice in our 1930's semi.

I started to bid for them on EBay which became a bit of an obsession! I managed over a few months to get 3 beautiful fireplaces at bargain prices, we also bought a new oak surround for the lounge.

The fireplace I got for the bedroom needs a real makeover as it is thick with layers of paint, I looked into stripping it myself with nitromorse but it all sounded a bit too much for me. A friend mentioned to me that she had had her fireplace restored by a company called Pyromania a period fireplace centre in Hove.

Well last week I bit the bullet and arranged a meeting with Peter from Pyromania, I was only really wanting a quote for the bedroom fireplace but when he arrived and saw the large Georgian fireplace (pictured right) we have for the lounge, he explained that he fits fireplaces as well. (Hooray I was starting to worry about Gav giving it a go on his own!! Images of chimney stacks falling through the ceiling had been worrying me for a while now)

So Peter has taken the small Victorian & large Georgian fireplaces away to strip, dip and make beautiful and I can't wait to see the results on the 4th June when he comes to fit them.

Finally there is light at the end of the tunnel, and proper decorating can commence.