A fireplace is the one wall in a living room that everything else faces. In St. Petersburg a lot of those walls are a plain drywall firebox from a 1970s build or a tired brick face from the 1950s, and the owners know it. The surround is the fix, and the right one depends on the house more than on any trend.
The short answer: the best fireplace surround follows the age of the house. A 1920s bungalow wants a substantial painted mantel, a mid century ranch wants a low slim one, and a newer home wants a focal point. Built-ins on both sides add storage and symmetry. J Fox LLC builds surrounds to match the home's existing trim.
What surround suits each era of St. Petersburg house?
St. Petersburg has 12,714 homes built before 1940 and 37% of its housing built before 1960, so most fireplaces here sit in one of three kinds of room.
1920s bungalows and Craftsman homes. A wood mantel with real weight: square or tapered columns, a flat frieze, a shelf deep enough to use. Painted to match the casing. Above it, a simple board and batten or flat panel field. Bookcases on either side were common in the originals, which is why flanking built-ins look right in these houses.
Mid century ranches from the 1950s to the 1970s. Low and horizontal. A slim floating mantel, or no shelf at all, on a full height paneled wall. Ornate trim fights the proportions of these rooms, so the work stays quiet and the lines stay long.
Newer construction. The most freedom, because there is nothing original to honor. A plain builder firebox usually needs a mantel, a paneled field above it and cabinets beside it before the room has a center.
Are built-ins on both sides of a fireplace worth it?
Usually, and for two reasons that have nothing to do with fashion.
The first is storage. A pair of base cabinets with open shelving above holds the books, media and the things that would otherwise live in freestanding furniture, which frees the floor.
The second is symmetry. A firebox off center on a long wall is a common problem in ranch houses, and matching built-ins are the cleanest way to fix it, because the cabinets can be sized unevenly while reading as a pair. The surround and the built-ins get designed together so the mantel height, the shelf spacing and the cabinet depth relate to each other. We covered what that work costs in how much custom built-ins cost in Tampa Bay.
How do you make a surround look original to the room?
By borrowing from the trim the house already has.
Match the profiles. If the baseboard and casing carry a particular edge, the mantel legs and the panel rails carry it too. How we match new trim to a home's original molding explains the method.
Scribe to the hearth. Tile and brick hearths are rarely level, and older plaster walls are rarely flat. The mantel legs and the panel field get scribed to what is there, so there is no shadow line of caulk along the bottom.
Set the height in the room. Mantel height is set standing in the room against the window heads and the ceiling, not from a chart.
What materials hold up around a fireplace in Florida?
Primed poplar or MDF for painted mantels and paneling in living areas, with joints glued and pinned so they stay tight through the humid months. That is the same spec J Fox uses for trim across the house. Anything near the firebox opening also has to respect the clearances the building code sets between combustible trim and the opening, which decides how close a wood mantel and its legs can sit. We size the surround to those clearances first and design around them.
If the wall above the mantel is getting paneled, wainscoting, board and batten and shiplap covers which system suits which house.
What does a fireplace surround cost?
On our published pricing, most built-in projects start around $1,500. A mantel and panel field on its own sits toward that end. A full wall with flanking cabinets and shelving is a larger built-in project and is priced after we see the room. Our custom built-ins page covers the cabinetry side and trim and finish carpentry covers mantels and paneling.
Where does J Fox LLC build fireplace surrounds?
J Fox LLC is based in St. Petersburg and builds fireplace surrounds and built-ins across Greater Tampa Bay, within about 50 miles. The bungalow fireplaces this article opens with are concentrated in Old Northeast and Historic Kenwood.
Frequently asked questions
Can you build a new surround around my existing firebox?
Yes. In most cases the firebox stays and the new mantel, panel field and cabinets are built around it, sized to the clearances the code requires between wood trim and the opening.
What mantel style suits a 1920s St. Petersburg bungalow?
A painted wood mantel with square or tapered columns and a usable shelf, with flat or board and batten paneling above. Bookcases on either side were common in the originals.
Do built-ins around a fireplace help with an off center firebox?
Yes. The two cabinets can be sized differently while reading as a matched pair, which is the cleanest way to center a long ranch house wall.
What material do you use for a painted mantel in Florida?
Primed poplar or MDF with glued and pinned joints, the same spec as our trim work, so the miters stay closed through the humid months.