Fireplaces | Mantels, Materials, and More

Summary

Podcast Title: Dear Alice | Interior Design
Episode: Fireplaces | Mantels, Materials, and More
Release Date: November 21, 2024
Hosts: Jessica Bennett and Suzanne Hall
Summary by: Alice Lane

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Introduction to Fireplaces and Listener Question

In this episode, hosts Jessica Bennett and Suzanne Hall delve deep into the world of fireplaces, responding to a listener's inquiry about precast concrete mantles. The episode begins with a warm Thanksgiving theme before transitioning into the main topic.

Notable Quote:
Suzanne (00:46): "Today's episode is all about fireplaces and it comes from a listener question. So let's start with that."

Custom Fireboxes vs. Precast Kits

Jessica and Suzanne explore the differences between custom fireboxes and precast kits. Custom fireplaces offer unparalleled flexibility in size and design, allowing homeowners to achieve a look reminiscent of historic European estates. In contrast, precast kits provide a cost-effective alternative that still delivers a grand appearance suitable for contemporary and transitional homes.

Notable Quote:
Corey (09:20): "We love a precast mantle... it's a good price point to kind of get this really big, grand look."

Firebox Sizes and Ventilation Considerations

The hosts emphasize the importance of selecting the right firebox size based on the room's dimensions and ventilation requirements. Custom fireboxes, while offering limitless design possibilities, necessitate more extensive ventilation systems, including larger chimneys and multiple chimney pots for optimal functionality.

Notable Quote:
Alice (10:20): "When you do stew a shelf, that's going to really lessen the depth of it... we like an entire surround on the mantel place."

Mantle Designs: Marble, Cast Stone, and GFRC

A significant portion of the discussion centers on different mantle materials:

• Marble Mantles: Known for their timeless elegance, marble mantles are customizable and non-combustible, making them a popular choice for high-end interiors.

• Cast Stone Mantles: These offer a versatile and more affordable alternative to marble, with the ability to mimic natural stone textures.

• GFRC (Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete) Mantles: Emerging as a favorite, GFRC mantles provide durability and can be tailored in various colors and designs, aligning with both traditional and contemporary aesthetics.

Notable Quote:
Alice (12:18): "You can really choose kind of a range, and they'll offer those ranges where you go here in Utah. What's our favorite place called? Stone Mountain Castings."

Cost Implications of Different Mantle Types

The hosts break down the cost differences between custom and precast options. Custom fireplaces can range from $16,000 and upwards, depending on design complexity, while precast kits start around $5,000 for substantial fireboxes.

Notable Quote:
Alice (24:24): "When you're dealing with carved marble, like being fabricated now with, you know, someone. Suzanne (25:15): 'That goes quick.'"

Contemporary vs. Traditional Fireplace Designs

Jessica and Suzanne discuss how different mantle styles suit various interior design schemes. Carved marble mantles are ideal for traditional and colonial settings, whereas cast stone and GFRC mantles complement modern and relaxed spaces. They also highlight the importance of maintaining a cohesive look by considering elements like sconces and surrounding décor.

Notable Quote:
Corey (43:03): "It's a nice material that's non combustible, like you said, and can be customized to whatever size. Firebox. You can make it as grand, as sure, as contemporary, simple as you want."

Common Pitfalls: Corner Fireplaces

A notable warning is issued against installing fireplaces in corners. The hosts argue that corner fireplaces complicate space planning and often result in awkward room layouts. They advocate for placing fireplaces on flat walls to ensure aesthetic appeal and functional space usage.

Notable Quote:
Corey (49:04): "Friends don't let friends do corner fireplaces. And I don't see it coming back."

Final Thoughts and Recommendations

In conclusion, Jessica and Suzanne urge listeners to prioritize the firebox's quality and design to achieve a cohesive and stunning fireplace setup. They recommend considering personal style, room size, and budget when selecting between custom and precast options. Additionally, they emphasize the enduring elegance of marble mantles and the versatility of modern materials like GFRC.

Notable Quote:
Alice (51:07): "One corner fiber at a time, you guys."

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Key Takeaways:

• Customization vs. Precast: Custom fireboxes offer limitless design possibilities at a higher cost, while precast kits provide a more affordable yet impressive alternative.

• Material Matters: Marble mantles remain a timeless choice, but cast stone and GFRC offer versatility and cost-efficiency for various design aesthetics.

• Avoid Corner Installations: For optimal space planning and aesthetic appeal, fireplaces should be installed on flat walls rather than corners.

• Proper Ventilation: Larger and custom fireboxes require more extensive ventilation systems to ensure functionality and safety.

Recommended For: Homeowners planning to install or remodel a fireplace, interior design enthusiasts, and anyone interested in the nuances of fireplace design and mantle materials.

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Note: This summary excludes non-content segments such as advertisements, intros, and outros to focus solely on the valuable insights and discussions provided in the episode.

Transcript

[Alice]

Welcome to Dear Alice A lifestyle approach to interior design.

[Corey]

Hello everyone and welcome to Dear Alice. Suzanne just gave us jazz hands. You guys. We are the week before Thanksgiving. Where has is 2024 gone?

[Suzanne]

I know this was supposed to be a year.

[Corey]

Did you say this was supposed to be your year? Yeah. Is it not?

[Suzanne]

It's just been a hell of a year.

[Corey]

A hell of a year.

[Suzanne]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Do you know what I've liked 2024. Do you know what I didn't like 2023? That girl.

[Suzanne]

That girl was this feels like it's cousin.

[Corey]

You know what?

[Suzanne]

Yeah.

[Alice]

I feel like we're tapering off in a better way than we started out. 2020. Where I needed the beginning of 2024.

[Corey]

Do you want to know who hates 2024? P. Diddy.

[Alice]

That 2024 homeboy's about to hate the next two decades.

[Suzanne]

Yeah.

[Alice]

You guys, that is a rabbit hole I cannot pull myself out of.

[Corey]

Oh my gosh. It's been a weird. It's been a weird year. But on that note, Happy Thanksgiving. Yeah.

[Alice]

What do we have to be grateful?

[Corey]

This. I feel like this is when all the magic starts. Like I'm so giddy about it. Yeah.

[Alice]

I gotta say, I love Thanksgiving. Like it's becoming one of my very favorite. Like.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

Holidays that in 4th of July.

[Corey]

4Th of July.

[Alice]

Cuz there's no expectations.

[Corey]

No.

[Alice]

You just eat for good food. You don't.

[Corey]

It's just togetherness.

[Suzanne]

Those are adult holidays.

[Alice]

Yeah, they are. It's like the pre. The prequel to the Christmas.

[Corey]

You can do as much or as little as you want.

[Alice]

Exactly.

[Corey]

Yeah. They're just. Yeah. If you love fireworks and all that, you can go so big. You can go illegal. You can blow stuff up.

[Suzanne]

Why not? Yeah.

[Corey]

It's for everyone.

[Suzanne]

You can be that dude. And your parents. Cul de sac and Chris Allred. Yeah.

[Corey]

I'm so grateful for his love of America and blowing things up. It could not be more fun to sit on my parents driveway and do nothing.

[Suzanne]

Yeah.

[Corey]

But enjoy him just blowing up his $10,000 of hard earned money. It's the best.

[Suzanne]

And exhilarating at the same time.

[Corey]

It's the best. I'm so grateful to him for loving America. It's a blast.

[Alice]

It's so good.

[Corey]

And Thanksgiving is also just the most fun. And the togetherness and the smells and the food and I don't know. It's just shopping.

[Alice]

I love the shopping. I was about to say I love the shopping for Christmas. And you know what? I love the hustle and bustle. I Know, people are like, all the crowds, it's just the worst. I, like, thrive. I'm an extrovert, though, so I'm just like, y. Just give it to me. Like, it's so good.

[Suzanne]

It reminds me of, like, 20, 25 years, like, when we were kids, you know, and, like, everybody was at the mall. Yeah. And now you go to the mall. There's, like, nine people here. Like, what the hell is going on? This is the weirdest thing. But during the holidays, it is nice. And then I've also got really into Black Friday shopping because last year was the first time I did it.

[Corey]

Oh, check that out.

[Suzanne]

I have a little, you know, List. Yes. So last year, I. We just had a bunch of things we wanted to get for house. Some appliances, an ice maker, you know, a. And so I was like, well, I think they're going to be some good deals on these. There was literally probably $2,000 worth of stuff we wanted, and we at least saved, like, four to five hundred bucks on that. So I was like, we're gonna do this again. So we've been making a list all year.

[Corey]

Wow.

[Alice]

Like, gifts for mom and dad for, like, the everyday convenience.

[Suzanne]

Yes. Yeah. Honestly, most of them are stuff that we just, like, want to have ourselves, so we're just kind of like, buy it while we can get.

[Corey]

Well, you give me an example of something that's on your Black Friday list.

[Suzanne]

Yes.

[Corey]

I need you to inspire me.

[Suzanne]

A Breville espresso machine.

[Corey]

Nice. Those are beautiful. So pretty in that green kitchen of yours. What, are we going to film a movie? What are we doing in there? Yeah, yeah. Inviting people over or you're just going to live like that? I guess.

[Suzanne]

Going to live like that every single day. I used to work at Starbucks. I was a barista.

[Corey]

Shut up.

[Suzanne]

I don't know if you guys knew that about me.

[Alice]

Old man place.

[Suzanne]

So I love. Yeah, I don't know. I love.

[Corey]

He's the fancy man.

[Alice]

He's the fancy man. Barista for you.

[Suzanne]

Okay. Yeah. So it's that a bunch of, like, tools, a new miter saw, a portable table saw would be nice. We'll see. Mari has her own list, too, so kind of just like we're both on a computer and we're just like, I don't know, tech and away trying to figure it out.

[Alice]

Typing up your Christmas lists.

[Suzanne]

Yeah.

[Alice]

For Black Friday.

[Corey]

And I have precisely nothing on my Black Friday list. No, we've just been feverishly trying to get a store ready for Black Friday.

[Suzanne]

Yeah. You know, just when you're putting on a sale. It's harder to really.

[Corey]

I feel like we're putting on the homecoming dance for America or something. I don't know. It's just been. It's just been like your own kind of heavy lift that way. And so when you get home, you're like, thank you, home for everything working and nothing going wrong right now. So that I can focus on the Super Bowl. That is. That is my life. Which is Black Friday. Yeah. So I don't think about what. What we need that way. But you know what I wish I could have gotten on Black Friday was that tire I had to buy last week. Man, I got razor blade in my tire. And so, yeah, that would have been nice to get a Black Friday price on that.

[Suzanne]

Tires are the worst, like, way to spend your money.

[Corey]

Teeth.

[Suzanne]

I just. I just recently, last Friday, I had to buy a new tire. Like, hey, there's not a. I would rather spend $1,000 almost on anything else.

[Corey]

I wish my tires were $1,000. Yeah.

[Suzanne]

Yeah.

[Corey]

I'm going to tell you also, if you live in Utah, you got to take tires seriously because we have a serious winter condition here, and it's not safe to not have good tires. So I feel like we get to buy tires often so much.

[Alice]

I feel like it's like every other year thing. It probably isn't that extreme. It feels like it, though.

[Corey]

Let me tell you a story called if you buy a Tesla, which I do not. Those cars are so heavy. They. The tires only last one year.

[Suzanne]

No way.

[Corey]

No way. That's like an oil change. That's what nobody tells you. My dad had a Tesla, and then he tried a different Tesla, and he's like, these are not for me. He's a car guy, and he loves a German engineering. We're German. My maid name's Lukingay. Like, we all love a German car. Dad was like, I'm gonna give it a try. He's open mindset. He loves new stuff. Tried two different Teslas. And he was like, what nobody tells you is because those cars are so heavy, you burn through a set of tires every year, you have to get a new set.

[Suzanne]

Crazy wild. That's the money you're saving in gasoline right there. I don't. Probably not that much, but truly, why are we.

[Corey]

Why are we doing a podcast on Teslas? I don't know. I was saying because I was. I would have liked to have gotten a good deal on my tire, and that was the only thing on my shopping list. Suze, what's on Your Black Friday shopping list.

[Alice]

Well, you're going to be really excited about this. We took Nolan to Lagoon. It's where the fun is. It's the amusement park here in Salt Lake City.

[Suzanne]

I forgot that that was their slogan.

[Corey]

That's amazing. It's. It's what fun is.

[Suzanne]

Oh, it's what fun is.

[Alice]

I was an advertising. I don't know if y'all knew that.

[Corey]

I was an art director in ad agencies. Did you come up with the first decade and. No. Lagoon already had the tagline, it's what fun is still good. And I was our director on their account. And Starbucks, actually. Think small world. You're too Black Friday.

[Alice]

Less full circle.

[Corey]

Oh, and Jess over here used to do all of their. All their advertising. Anyway, it's what fun is.

[Alice]

It is what fun is. But, like, it was like. Like a hundred dollars, like, per person for us to go this last summer. And I was just like, whoa. And there was all these people, and I was sitting in line with the lady, and she's like. And my kid Nolan loved it. He had so much fun.

[Corey]

So cute.

[Alice]

It was so much fun. And he was.

[Corey]

Tell the people how old Nolan is.

[Alice]

Nolan is nine years old.

[Corey]

Okay.

[Alice]

Going on. Going on 20.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

Anyway, he's a wise soul, but he loved it so much and it was so fun. And we left all the other little rugrats at home. We just took Nolan and he was just like. He just had so much fun. They were like, it would be really fun to give him a season pass. And, like, he would be so jazzed about it. And the lady in line was just like, Black Friday. Like, don't spend every day, like, the hundred dollars each. Like, just get a Black Friday. It's amazing.

[Suzanne]

Say what it does cost or.

[Alice]

No, but it's like, saves you a lush. It's like you're. You paid for it in two visits.

[Suzanne]

Pretty much crazy.

[Alice]

So, like. Yeah. Amazing. So I think we might get some Lagoon season passes. No. Nope. No one's not listening.

[Corey]

That's cute. I love that.

[Alice]

But. So that's one of the things. But I haven't even ever gone and, like, made a list.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

For myself.

[Corey]

You know what? We gotta fire it up. We got a week. Yeah. So we're gonna be like Corey and we're gonna save ourselves hundreds of dollars.

[Suzanne]

Yes.

[Corey]

By spending thousands.

[Suzanne]

Exactly.

[Corey]

Black Friday, America. Am I right?

[Suzanne]

Get all the stuff that you. I don't know. Yeah. It feels good.

[Alice]

It makes. It makes your life better.

[Suzanne]

That's adult Christmas for me.

[Corey]

Because you want to Know what? Mari's about to get herself a barista.

[Suzanne]

Exactly.

[Corey]

She's so lucky.

[Suzanne]

I'm going to put on the apron. I'm going to get back into it.

[Alice]

I like it. Speaking of firing it up. Yes, Corey, what are we talking about today?

[Suzanne]

Today's episode is all about fireplaces and it comes from a listener question. So let's start with that. The listener question comes from Angela, no last name in the uk. Thank you so much, Angela. Sorry about that. She wrote in and asked regard to the cast concrete mantle that is often discussed. Could you confirm whether this is just the top shelf of the fireplace or the whole of the fireplace? And is it pre colored, painted, stained, or left concrete gray?

[Corey]

This is a great question. I'll answer this. Yeah. So we love a precast mantle. I think we've been specifying them in homes for at least a decade, if not more. It's been kind of a favorite. If you're not doing marble. We do love a marble surround, but precast has been a way to kind of get the look of stone or just like one solid big surface and you can make a more contemporary, more traditional fits great in a transitional home. It's a good price point to kind of get this really big, grand look. So we love it. So in answer to your question, Angela, we don't just do the top shelf. We do the entire surround. So it's got the legs and the top. And we usually like this about 10 inches deep, at least, because you want to be able to put your big hurricanes, your candles, books, all of that on top. Your holiday, if you celebrate the holidays, a nice garland, stocking holders, all of that, it just takes a lot of depth.

[Alice]

Yep.

[Corey]

So when you do stew a shelf, that's going to really lessen the depth of it. And that's probably one of the biggest reasons why the top shelf kind of feels like an accent wall. When you're decorating a room, it just is like one thing and it feels like it's missing something. So we like an entire surround on the mantel place. She asks, is it pre colored, painted or stained? You can choose what color of concrete. When you go to the precast place, they have several shades they offer and the color is mixed right into the sort of concrete mix and then it's poured and cast and so it comes out just looking. Yeah, whatever you want it to be. You can make it look more like limestone and have it look more natural and, you know, something more like unto onto this, which I think is what we generally go toward we did precast mantles in our new showroom that we're in here. We have three of them, and they're a really beautiful kind of biscuit color, and it looks great. We kind of went through a gray period, and we've come out of a gray period. So I would not recommend doing anything like that right now. Unless you're really industrial and you're very contemporary, and maybe you want it to look more like concrete, but you can really choose kind of a range, and they'll offer those ranges where you go here in Utah. What's our favorite place called?

[Alice]

Stone Mountain Castings.

[Corey]

Stone Mountain Castings. Yeah. We have, like, we have our favorite few colors that we choose from.

[Alice]

Yeah, yeah. And they. I found out, too, that they don't do. There's cast stone, which I think people have, like, seen, like, with the limestone, and. And then there was this gfrc, which is like this concrete material that you're talking about in your question. And they've come a long way where it doesn't feel cold and sterile, but it has, like, swirled. Not like a marble or anything, but there's just like, more. There's more pitting and more where it looks like a stone. And so you really, like, honestly, the. The average. I won't be able to tell if one is stone versus one if it's.

[Corey]

Limestone or if it's concrete. Yeah, exactly. And that's what you're going for, because if you were to buy slabs of stone to make this, it would be so much more expensive. And so you're going for that more high end look.

[Alice]

Yeah, yeah. So I'm excited for you. But, yeah, I do the whole thing and the nice thing. And we're. When we got this question, we're like, you know what? There's a lot to fireplaces, and we do get a lot of questions about fireplaces. And this just kind of springboarded the whole episode of just like, what goes into a fireplace.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

You know, from the box to the different sized mantles, to the cost, to the limitations. And so that's what we want to talk to you about today, is fireplaces.

[Corey]

There's a lot of you that are going through maybe a remodel on maybe decisions that were made for you. Right. You might have just moved into a home, or maybe you decided on these things yourself maybe 20 years ago, and you're like, you know what would really make this fresh and new? A new fireplace. Because it's generally like the focal point that everybody gathers around. If you do have a Fireplace. So you really want to get it right. And because most of the time you're in a sitting room, you're seated, then that means your eye level is the fireplace. Right. And getting the mantle. Right. And so it's often a big budget piece that we're doing in a room that has a fireplace. And there's so many different ways to skin this cat. So we're going to go through our favorite looks and then we're also going to tell you how to get the look for a little bit less money. So depending on where you are on the gamut of price range, hopefully we can help you know how to get that look for less or help you achieve that grand, big, beautiful dream doing it this old fashioned, beautiful way.

[Alice]

I know. And I think when I, when I think about like, what is the ideal fireplace, what would I do if I was building a house right now and I want to do like anything. I love the look of a custom fireplace. Now let's just talk really fast about just kind of the pyramid of fireboxes. You have a custom fireplaces, which is what you can do. You can do any size. It's what you see when you go into castles and go and go to Europe and you go to historic homes and you see this like open faced firebox that has no glass in front of it. And you can see like the masonry. You can see that herringbone thin stacked brick on the back liner of that firebox. That's a custom. Usually like if it's super thin and they're big and open, that's usually a custom. There's a lot of cool companies now that create kind of this custom kit where you can get the look of an open face still with like interior liners that you can choose from to get that look. And so we at Alid, we do custom, we do a lot of these kits as well to get the look. But we do love an open face. And that is like, especially for your great room or your living room. I think the open face is the most expensive looking. I think it feels the most custom, even if it is a kit. And I think that is like what you, what I want you to take from this podcast is if you were going to put a firebox and a whole mantle and the whole system in your house, knowing that you can get that custom look in a kit type and that's what you should go with for that public space, I think is like such a key takeaway.

[Corey]

Yeah, we're going to help you in this podcast be really discerning about the firebox that you're going to choose because that really matters and it's going to give you an amazing custom look. You don't just have to go to some fireplace place and just choose an insert and get it put in and then figure out what goes around it. By getting the firebox right, this is going to really make your house look fully, fully custom. Like they built the firebox, they had to line it with these herringbone liners. Like, we're really going to help you get there. So yeah, yeah, that's. We're hoping the takeaway can be yes.

[Alice]

And so I wanted to talk first about kind of limitations. Like, what is the size limitation that you're dealing with for custom? You don't have any limitations. You can do whatever you want, but you pay for that. If you were going with a like a stocked a brand, like we use the Birmingham a lot from heat elator and we do a lot of these. Again, these kits, the average size for most people is about a 42 inch wide firebox. Okay. And so like figure out your size. Figure out the kind of like what price point you're dealing with as you start to build up this fire blocks. But when you do go to a kit, there are limitations. You know, you have to let you'll go on to the brand. If you're working with a builder, he'll tell you what he wants to work with and then you're going to say, I want a custom light kit, I want an open face. And then you're going to go to that website and you're going to figure out what width is good for your room. Okay. And so are.

[Corey]

Your designer is going to do this.

[Alice]

Your designer is going to do this. Yeah, that's what we do. Okay. So yeah, as far as like limitations, no limitations with custom. And then if you are going to go with the kit, you're going to like go with one of their actual standard kit sizes.

[Corey]

Your builder is going to have favorite preferred vendors that he uses all the time. The easy part about that is you're just getting like this gas fireplace box and you can have it just vent out the back of the firebox. Right. So on the back of my house, because I have something like that, it vents out that way. I do have a chimney. It's four looks. Yeah. You don't have to have it. If you do the firebox, the custom firebox, you need yourself a nice big chimney to allow for all of the firepower, the oxygen, all of the ventilation. The bigger the firebox. The bigger the chimney, the more chimney pots. This is going to give your house a really awesome estate like look. And it really does have to vent out the chimney.

[Alice]

And it has. And that's the vertical is like the best way for that ventilation to happen. And depending on the size of the box, depends on the size of the room. And so that will matter when you start to get into the mechanics of like how many pipes are going up and down that chimney. Fluent. To make it work.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

So if you want something really, really big, just know that you're going to have to have more ventilation and more content in that firebox.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

To vent it.

[Corey]

So what's interesting is if you drive around in like you're in a more affordable neighborhood, you like a new neighborhood. Right. And I say affordable, like those houses aren't even affordable anymore. They're small, they're smaller, and they almost would look like what a starter home would be today. And they don't have chimneys, but I promise you they have fireplaces. And the way they're doing is they just can vent out the back because they have just these ready made boxes that you just choose a size, you put it in, you do a surround, and there's no chimney. So I think it's fun to drive through really nice neighborhoods and count the chimneys or see the chimneys. And, you know, the fireboxes are good. And to me, it's the look of a really well built house. It's kind of a giveaway. You know, I decided bookmark that for a minute.

[Alice]

I love that. And I will say when I'm like looking on Pinterest and like gathering inspiration, even as we were like looking for images to show you today, you can tell the custom ones by the size of the matchstick liner, like on the back of it.

[Corey]

Yeah, good point.

[Alice]

And I want to pull a couple over here. This is a home that we are working on in Odessa and these are some of the custom firebox. And I talked to the builder on this to just ask him some of these questions kind of in preparation for the podcast. And really you can do anything when you get into custom. Yeah, it's really fun. And especially when it comes to the masonry. This thin kind of. It's called the splits. I think it looks fire brick.

[Corey]

Yeah, the fire brick almost looks like a brick that's been cut in half the long way. So they're like, they look like half bricks and it looks like a herringbone braid. You ladies know what that, what that is? And I think this is the look that you want. Right. If you're doing fireplace.

[Alice]

And this is when you actually have, like, a mason. And they are, like, individually laying these in the desired pattern. Like, we see the herringbone a lot. I just love the thin set of this. But you can do anything.

[Corey]

This is the American dream. When I think of, like, the ideal fireplace, you're like, that's what I want.

[Alice]

It's my dream.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

It's so good. Yep. And you can kind of. You can control the color on a custom, too. On the actual, like, you can do something like a little bit more neutral or buff. When you get into the standard firebox liners, they'll probably have, like, four or five for you to choose from. And they're usually a little bit more pinky or a little bit more yellow. And they're not as thin as that.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

Like, they're a little bit more of, like, three by six, and they're wider. It's still. You can still do it. Herringbone. But they're just bigger and fatter of a brick.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

Than the thin set. And so I'm like, that's the giveaway for me if I know it's custom versus if I know it's a kit.

[Corey]

Yeah. So I agree. I feel like mine was a kit and my bricks are straight. Straight up beige.

[Alice]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Yeah. And that's all that there was at the time. And the more I turn it on, the blacker it gets. And I'm like.

[Alice]

Which is lovely.

[Corey]

Darn it all. I should have painted that brick black before. Right. I didn't know.

[Alice]

Yeah.

[Corey]

I didn't know that I could have done that. So.

[Alice]

But which is a really. We've done that for a lot of homes when we don't like the color of it or it's going to clash with the stone or the mantle that we're going to be doing on it, I think is a real, like, key thing to know that you're designing this holistically and you understand your snow, your cast concrete, your millwork as you're picking out your firebox, which is a lot, because usually if you're building a home, they need to know your firebox when they need to know your plumbing and your electrical at the very, very beginning. That's one of the first things we specifically. And so knowing that, like, I have. I'm going to get a Birmingham from heat elator, and that's going to be my firebox. I might be painting that black.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

Because I don't know. Exactly.

[Corey]

So you all know how much I love gift giving and it is our season for gifting. Our partner, Cozy Earth is about the coziest thing that you can give. I'm going to tell you about two products that I'm obsessed with right now. Number one is their Cuddle blanket. And number two is the pajama set on the Cuddle blanket. It is their bestseller for a reason. It's always in high demand and it has irresistible pile and softness and warmth. I put mine at the foot of my bed so if I want to watch a movie, I don't necessarily have to get into all my covers. I can just pull this thing on top of me and it is absolutely irresistible. My puppy wants to get involved, my kids want to join me. It's a magnet for people and it's beautiful. That's the Cuddle blanket, an amazing gift. The next thing I would say is the women's stretch knit long sleeve bamboo pajama set. Guys, you got to get these for your girlfriends or for your mom or your sister in law or whoever you love. Because we all know the holidays are best spent lounging at home being comfortable. And these are beautiful. I love the fit, I love the feel, I love the way they drape. And we all know that the holidays are just designed for cherished moments of relaxation, ensuring that you feel cozy all week long. You don't even want to wear clothes. You're just going to want to wear these to open the door, to hang out, to eat every meal. And they are beautiful. On I have to tell you, the weave of the fabric doesn't peel. They're guaranteed for 10 years. And the ultimate ingredient for a luxurious sleep is softness. And you're going to get that in the pajamas and you're going to get it with that Cuddle blanket. So if you want to wrap your loved ones in luxury, do it with Cozy Earth. Just visit cozy earth.com deeralice Use my exclusive code for 40% off, guys. It's the biggest discount they do Code is Dear Alice to give the gift of luxury this holiday season. Again, that's cozy earth.comforward/Dear Alice and you're going to get a post purchase survey and say that you heard about Cozy Earth from the Dear Alice podcast. Here's also what I want to say is you can get yourself a Birmingham from heat later. That's going to be the most custom looking and then you can spend all of that other money on the surround which is what everybody's going to see. And you want to understand your budget because at the beginning of building your home or at the beginning of any project, you feel like you have a lot of money because you're like this project is hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[Suzanne]

That goes quick.

[Corey]

It goes so, so fast. And so you might want all that custom firebox money to be on the inside of your house where you can see it. And you can just do yourself a big favor and get yourself the Birmingham.

[Alice]

Or the outside of the firebox.

[Corey]

Can you just give them. Will you give them a difference in price between the Birmingham from heater later, which is 42 inches, which is what we use on most of our projects. How much does it cost to get that? Versus getting probably that same size built custom and getting that American dream with the really special herringbone liner and all that.

[Alice]

Yep. I would say that you're starting, you know, around when I talked to Tyson or guy from Hearth and Home and he's like, you're starting at like $5,000 versus for a kit for a heat elator. Yeah.

[Corey]

Okay.

[Alice]

Okay. And you can find, depending on the size, these are all fire box. Right? Depending. So let's just say starting with 5,000 for a decent sized box, that's like a 42 inch or something. That's going to look grand. Right? Okay. Versus when you're dealing with custom, those firebox would start closer to 16,000. 16,000.

[Corey]

So that's like 3x just on the firebox itself. Not to mention guess what else you got to get yourself with that gift with purchase. No, just kidding. You're gonna pay for it too. A chimney. Right. Because the heat elator mechanics, you can go ahead and just shoot that right out the back of your house. And now so you gotta get chimney pots and yada yada, yada into a cooler mantle. A marble mantle.

[Suzanne]

Yeah.

[Corey]

What people are any kind of.

[Alice]

Any.

[Corey]

Any. Yeah, anything. Yeah, yeah. So it's.

[Alice]

Yeah. The glass fronts I think are the ones that you can shoot out the back or the sides. I still think if you're open face, you still have to be very true.

[Corey]

Because you still have all the BTs.

[Alice]

You still have all the stuff coming in and out.

[Suzanne]

So look, look at the technology, the jargon over there.

[Corey]

Okay, so let's do this for the, for the remainder of the podcast because there's. Because we keep kind of switching back and forth. Let's just talk about the American dream, which is the custom firebox briefly because I think it's good for us to know and have appreciation for that. And. And then let's go into the most common thing because most of us here are going to want to spend the money on our surroundings.

[Alice]

It's true.

[Corey]

Right?

[Alice]

Yep.

[Corey]

So let's just discuss that.

[Alice]

Yes. So sorry, you guys. There's so much information. I'm sorry I'm jumping around, but it's just so exciting. I just love the technicalities. I love a research project.

[Corey]

Yeah, you do.

[Alice]

Okay, so we talked about the liner. That's that masonry. With custom, you can do anything, which is so exciting. Which is what that picture was.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Alice]

Okay.

[Corey]

Custom firebox.

[Alice]

When you're dealing with a custom, you just still need to have like a log set. It's gas. You can do a dual fuel. So that means that you can have like a gas. You can flip the switch or you can also like have an actual fire.

[Corey]

In it in case of emergencies. Fire goes out. Gas. You can't use gas.

[Alice]

Buried. An eagle scout, he wants to show you how you can.

[Corey]

Suddenly you've got to build a fire in. So you've got logs in the garage that you've been waiting to use that you can switch it over to that mode and build yourself a real fire. I don't know how it works, but. Right.

[Suzanne]

Yeah.

[Corey]

I just hear them say dual fuel and you're like, that's cool. Let's do that.

[Suzanne]

We're really one's more just like it's a one fuel. And then you can also just light your own fire inside of it. Yeah.

[Corey]

In case of emergency.

[Suzanne]

Yes.

[Alice]

So yeah, most people, like 10 out of 10. We're just doing gas. Yep. Yes. So you can do that for when you have to go select that like insert the log set or the cannonballs or whatever your aesthetic is. Right. You can just like, if you're just for actual custom one, you're just going to go to your like fireplace local store and you can pick out what that looks like depending on the size of your box.

[Corey]

We love a cannonball, folks.

[Alice]

I do love a cannonball. Isn't that gorgeous?

[Corey]

It's so good. We expect to see logs. So when you see, you know, non directional fireballs.

[Suzanne]

Fireballs, yeah.

[Corey]

That's so gorgeous.

[Alice]

This is so as an alternate to the log, this is what we. We do like, we love it so much. Don't do like the cracked ice and the fire.

[Corey]

Don't do it.

[Alice]

I just want to say that out loud.

[Corey]

Don't be tempted by that.

[Alice]

Don't. And they'll be like, oh, it's gonna tell your future. You don't want it like, like, it's the worst.

[Corey]

It's the worst. Do you know what it reminds me of? Like, if there's a fish tank in the wall, it's that energy.

[Alice]

You converted your fish tank into a firebox.

[Corey]

Yeah. Hey, you know what I mean?

[Alice]

Yeah, I totally get that.

[Corey]

Oh, gosh.

[Alice]

I just want. Yeah, everyone just like, don't be tempted by it. Just like, I don't even care.

[Corey]

If you have a contemporary home and you have that long, beautiful slit of a fireplace. It's like 72 inches by, like 16 inches. Still, don't put to the cracked ice in it. Don't do it. Do the fireball fall.

[Alice]

It just smell much more expensive.

[Corey]

Yeah, you're better than the cracked ice.

[Alice]

Yeah.

[Corey]

I don't even care. Thank you. I don't care if you live in Las Vegas. I don't care. I don't care if you live in the most beautiful, showy place on earth. Don't do the cracked ice.

[Alice]

100.

[Corey]

Good talk.

[Alice]

Yes. Very, very, very good talk. Okay. All right. But yeah, with the log set, you're just going to find the prettiest one for your thing. I really like the birch logs. I think that those are really pretty and those are nice and light.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Alice]

So anyway.

[Corey]

Birch logs.

[Alice]

Yes. There's like, both of these are birch logs.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

I think that they're lighter and prettier and they just look more expensive.

[Corey]

So it's traditional.

[Alice]

It's traditional.

[Corey]

It's what you expect.

[Alice]

I think it's so pretty.

[Corey]

Yeah, it's beautiful. You know yourself be true to yourself.

[Alice]

Yep. So with custom, you're going to pick out your insert and you can like, even just, like, search for it online. You can buy it online for your fire firebox. Okay. With custom. When I talk to my homeboy in Texas, no limitation as far as where you can put a custom fireplace. So you can do it everywhere. You can do it in a great room.

[Corey]

You can do it in the master bedroom.

[Alice]

In the master bedroom. It depends on your city code. Where he lives. He's not filling any restrictions. Even when I talked to our guy here in Utah, he's like, it's a strong suggestion not to do it in your primary bedroom because he had a great example of the reason why you don't want to do that. Because again, with an open face, custom box, you are venting it. You have an open conduit going from like, your room to the open air. Right. So he had one client.

[Corey]

Drafty. It's drafty.

[Alice]

He had one client that just, like, really pressed him. And it's not that you can't do it. He just said that you shouldn't do it because again, the open conduit. So this guy was building at the point of the mountain in Utah, which is like, really, really windy. So they're building this house on top of the mountain. On top of the mountain. He wants to do this open face in his primary bedroom. He moves in. It's really windy up there. And he can hear everything. He can hear the wind, and it's super loud all the time. And he's like, builder, like, if it's.

[Corey]

Raining, please, like, if it's raining, make it stop.

[Alice]

And you can't unless you shut the whole thing down. And so that is why, like, having the glass front makes a little bit more sense in a bedroom. Just so you don't have that open air, rain, wind, any of those things waking you up in the middle of the night.

[Suzanne]

Do they have like, can you. Is it called the flu? Can you close that?

[Alice]

Close the flu. But there must have been.

[Corey]

You have to remember to open it. If you're going to turn the fireplace on.

[Suzanne]

Something's gonna. Is it carbon monoxide that you would get from that? Yeah, something.

[Alice]

That's a bummer.

[Suzanne]

Yeah.

[Alice]

Anyway. But yeah, obviously the installation time for a custom is going to be a lot longer also than how fast it is to install just a standard gas.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

So this is.

[Corey]

You've got to. You've got to be able to frame it up. You've got to build it out. Right. And then you've got to come in, you've got to skin it, you've got a fluid. You've got to do all the things. So.

[Alice]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

It's our guy in Texas. I'm like, tell me, how long would it take a guy to do this masonry work versus, like, if I just threw a gas one? He's just like, oh, that's like a four or five day job versus a gas one. He's like, he could do that in an hour. In an hour.

[Suzanne]

That's crazy.

[Alice]

That's for a master builder. Those are his, like, time. But just so you know, like custom. It takes longer, it's more expensive. There's just like a lot more pieces and parts and stuff that you have to control the look of if you're gonna go that route. We love the look. Love it so much.

[Corey]

Yeah. But if you're building a lodge up in Park City or a big cabin or something like that, I think you definitely do the custom firebox because it's all about gathering around that fire and talking. It's A moment and you expect to have a grand fireplace. I think he even said he did one that was 6ft tall by 6ft wide. A 6 foot tall man could stand inside the firebox. But it's also got a lot of heat power. Right. It's going to fill an entire cabin with, with warmth, you know, or you're going to sit on this really long hearth with your little wet bum after you skied all day and you want to warm up. So most of these fireplaces that we talk about today don't get used. I'd say like 97% of the time, especially in Texas. Right. Like I think about how often have I ever turned mine on? Maybe if the furnace went out. I've turned mine on in the living room. But really it's not turning up the whole house. Right.

[Alice]

Is that a pretty. Do you ever like turn it on just for the pretty?

[Corey]

Yeah, like if a friend comes over, I'll turn it on. But then you get hot fast. So you're maybe going to have it on for like an hour at the most. But then you're like, oh man, it's pretty but we got to turn this off. Right. It's hot. Yeah, it gets warm fast. It's really fun for ambiance and you know the size of your room and if you have tall ceilings because heat rises, you could probably leave it on a lot longer. This is a single story room room with 10 foot high ceilings. So it heats up.

[Alice]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. One thing I did want to share with you guys on these custom fireplaces, you can go fully custom build the box. The custom like brands I think we use a lot too is Isokern. You'll, you'll hear that term a lot and they have a lot of different like varieties that you can choose from. And I, I feel like isocern is the most customizable, you know, for even like kind of in that kit arena. So.

[Suzanne]

And that's I S O K I.

[Alice]

R N K E R N. Yeah, yeah. The builder I talked to, he's like, I liken it to like Ford or Chevy. They're pre made component engineered box. But any mason can put it together so you get the look of it, but it's custom. So anyway, so Isokern use that verbiage when you're talking to your builder and he'll know what you're talking about.

[Corey]

Great.

[Alice]

That's great.

[Corey]

Love.

[Alice]

Okay. All right. Oh, this is one other fun little fact about custom before we go into standard with custom, your options for your chimney Caps, they open up so much more. Who doesn't love a cute chimney cap?

[Corey]

Love it. It's like a chess piece sitting on top of your chimney. Cutest.

[Alice]

So when you go on that, like, tour of the high end estate neighborhoods, like, look at their chimney caps because I guarantee you they're interesting.

[Corey]

Especially the European looking homes. Yeah.

[Alice]

Detail with the standard, it's usually just those stainless steel mushroom caps. So not as fun.

[Suzanne]

So.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

Anyway, that was another fun thing about custom. If you're gonna go throw down the 16 to $25,000, not to mention the.

[Corey]

Chimney and the fire cap and the chimney caps and then the mantle surrounding it. But when you do see that, just give them a round of applause in your mind because they went ahead and purchased a really nice car and parked it right there in the center of the room to be appreciated.

[Suzanne]

A 2012 car, not a 2024 car.

[Corey]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Alice]

Okay.

[Corey]

That's true.

[Alice]

Okay, great. And then for all, like the standard boxes. I think we've said enough about boxes. I feel like I'm getting boring. But anyway, it's basically you pick from their options and you pick the best. I would say when you're looking for your firebox, as much transparency as you can get is key. Like when you're like looking at glass front or non glass front? Standard, you just want a very thin frame, mostly glass, so you can see as much fire as possible. When you're buying that standard kit.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

That's all I got to say on that one.

[Corey]

And I think those are more available today. I feel like back when I was building 10 years ago, I'm just going to show you guys my party foul. I mean, mine's. Mine's great.

[Alice]

Yours is beautiful.

[Corey]

It's great. But I will say this is what was available then. You can see that big black frame surrounding mine. My firebox. It was. I mean, that's a lot, right? That's like an inch, inch and a half of black frame around it. Today you really want to look for those that are just seamless, where you're just. Yeah. Where you can just look right into the firebox and you're not seeing a big frame surrounding it. Right.

[Alice]

Yep.

[Corey]

So that's what you're looking for.

[Alice]

Yep.

[Corey]

You want that look of the American dream. Custom firebox.

[Alice]

Exactly.

[Corey]

You don't want to see a frame. You want to see nothing. You want to see right in.

[Alice]

Okay.

[Corey]

Yeah, agreed.

[Alice]

Okay. So that's the guts. Yep. That's the firebox. Let's talk mantles. Let's talk Mantles, the pretty stuff that you're going to want to spend your money on.

[Corey]

Yep.

[Alice]

So our very, very favorite kind of mantle that you do. I think this is like a spot for like in your living room. We did this for Rachel Parcel's living room.

[Corey]

Cue Rachel Parcel photo.

[Alice]

Okay. Yes. And yeah, in her living room, in her library, we also did this. And these are like carved stone. So her firebox is definitely all custom. And then the mantle is actually like a car stone. Like you can get this in a variety. There's. When we do a carved stone or a carved marble, there's that we have like a stone place here that they really do carve everything. And that's going to be your most expensive. The cool thing about carved marble mantles is like, you can have spend the money for that, but there's also so many options out there now where there's different. There's different companies that are importing them, you know, in pieces. And then your builder assembles them, which is what we did for her living room also. You can buy them on like on Etsy guys. Like, you can actually start your firebox journey by finding your mantle first and then reverse engineering your firebox with that.

[Suzanne]

That may tell you like if you're doing custom or. Yeah, yes, exactly.

[Alice]

Okay. Exactly. But you can like honestly, like on first dips, Etsy cherish estate sales. Like, you can like estate auctions. You can like get some really, really beautiful antique French. We just recently saw like this little bit from Nate Burkus and he was like, I love looking at like old French marble mantles. He's like, and I'll start a project with that. I'm like, that's. It's so true. If you can start your firebox search with a story like that. Gorgeous. Your mantle's taken care of. And then you're just having your builder help you design around that. The other great thing about an all stone or an all cast mantle like these, Jess is showing you is that the whole thing is non combustible. When you're dealing with a firebox, depending on the size of your firebox, you have to have, you know, 8 to 12 inches of non compostable around that firebox. And so that means that you, you know, like if you were dealing with like millwork or something, and we'll get into those mantles, like you have to have tile and then it just like grows that footprint of the mantle that much more. But if you can just be dealing with a beautiful cast stone mantle or cast, you know, concrete Mantle. Like you're all mantle and mostly firebox. And that's the prettiest thing I think you can do. So.

[Corey]

So pretty. So those are all beautiful examples. If you guys are watching, those are all beautiful examples of marble mantles that we've done throughout different projects. And for the majority of these that we just showed, we have used a ready made firebox from Isocorn or heat a later. Heat a later. Yep. And we tried to do our best to get that look of the custom one with the herringbone brick. We'll leave the glass front off in some circumstances or we'll use the glass front depending on the room. And we just. We really just spend the money on the mantle.

[Alice]

Yeah.

[Corey]

You're still spending what, 6,000 on a firebox. So it's not that it's. Yeah, it's not that it's cheap, but you're getting this big grand look. You want a big firebox if you're going for a room right now. He said the standard size was like 32 by something you can start with.

[Alice]

Like the 36 inches. He's like, you guys are usually doing like average is 42W.

[Corey]

Yeah. So you want that big look. It's one of those space expanding tricks. So if you can do the 42, do the 42. Because that's going to look like one of those big custom fire boxes.

[Alice]

Like spread across, like it's tall. 42 is a lot. Yes.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

Feet.

[Corey]

Definitely.

[Alice]

Amazing. I did want to share a couple numbers like with the custom. Like the marble.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

If you had a fairly simple. This is from our builder in Texas that did some of those custom fireboxes for us. He. Because we were doing a lot of carved mantle in that home. And he says, like for two fireplace mantles in that home, the two that we're doing out of marble was $38,000 for the mantles.

[Suzanne]

Okay.

[Alice]

So that's where you're sitting at when you're dealing with carved marble, like being fabricated now with, you know, someone.

[Suzanne]

Is that a custom design or do they have like custom design? Okay.

[Alice]

That's like us designing it for them. They're making the mantle for us. Again, if you go through these other like channels of like finding it at a decently good deal. Right. The Etsy's, those things that will obviously like save you a lot of money.

[Corey]

I'm gonna use this example because I know something that Drew Parcel was really proud of. He got this one from China and this was pieces and parts of a marble one that, that he had his tile setter put together and it's massive. This is a two story mantle.

[Suzanne]

Yeah.

[Corey]

But then they did a real carved mantle in the family room and went for it there. So it's just a way of like making your budget look. But this is still really grand and beautiful and impressive. Yeah.

[Alice]

So, yeah. But he says if you do have a fairly simple stone and like it's smaller, he's like, I could start that at 3,000, but it can go up to 50,000. So it's a broad range when you're dealing with carbon. Like mar marbles.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

On the cast stone or like concrete mantles. Let's get into that because we do those a lot. And honestly, like when you're dealing looking at a whole house, like, we'll do again the carved marble in like a living room or a library and maybe the primary bedroom. If they have a fireplace, we'll do the marble. If you're talking about family rooms and more casual, relaxed spaces, we'll often do these cast ones like the gfrc, the concrete. Just because you can get a big mantle for a lot less than doing a carved marble. So anyway, we love these. Let's see again, you're all still non combustible. They're gorgeous. More relaxed.

[Corey]

This is what the listener question opened with, wanting to know about these gfrc, like what colors do they come in? You can see the colors that we're choosing. We can design them and then they go ahead and make a mold and cast them in this GFRC sort of concrete material in the color that we want.

[Alice]

And it's just natural and. Yeah, I guess you can find some really cool profiles. I think with all these examples you can like really feel the personality of the client through the mantle.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

And so. And these are starting a little bit more. It used to be like a few years ago you could get one of these, like a simple design for 2000.

[Corey]

I know.

[Alice]

I think it's more like today. Yeah. Five to six thousand starting.

[Corey]

We did the store, I think. Weren't they around 6 in like 20, 22?

[Suzanne]

Yeah, like about. Yeah, just over 5, I think.

[Corey]

So depending on how clever you are about shopping on Etsy, you could probably get a marble surround for the same price.

[Suzanne]

Probably.

[Corey]

I would really shop that.

[Alice]

Yeah.

[Suzanne]

I mean, shipping may, you know, that may like play into it as well, but yeah, I mean, you'll get probably more bang for your buck, I think.

[Alice]

Something really interesting.

[Corey]

Yeah, exactly.

[Alice]

I think it's very tempting. I think if like you're our building tomorrow I think that's what we would do. We'd probably try and find a really rad marble mantle.

[Corey]

I think with some of the product development work we're doing, we could definitely get ourselves a marble mantle.

[Alice]

Cheerio. Cheerio. Cheerio.

[Corey]

Marble mantles. Yes, Definitely.

[Alice]

Okay.

[Corey]

These are both really nice transitional or contemporary versions of precast that we've done. So this can really mold to whatever style that you are.

[Alice]

Amazing.

[Corey]

It's such a nice material that's non combustible, like you said, and can be customized to whatever size. Firebox. You can make it as grand, as sure, as contemporary, simple as you want.

[Alice]

It's fun because when you look at all these, like, mantles, there's usually something. A lot of other interesting things happening around it. So depending on just, like, how much focus you want, like even that last one, that was really simple. The mirror above it was really complex.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

And the sconces and like, so just depending on, like, if you're a hero on a hero kind of girl, or if you are, there's a real balance to thinking about the scene holistically.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

About the mantle.

[Corey]

You're talking about this, Amir. See?

[Alice]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

She was eclectic. She had gallery, she had art, all these things. And so it was important to kind of keep the mantle simple just because we knew we were going to layer a lot of ooey gooeys on top of it. So.

[Corey]

Yeah, it's great. Speaking of contemporary, I think this is.

[Alice]

A really nice one we designed. This is for a home here in Fruit Heights. And just the channeling and the legs, like, it shows, like, the variety they can do when you deal with cast. Yeah.

[Corey]

It's kind of like the new millwork. You know what I mean? How you can do anything with millwork.

[Alice]

We're not doing as much with millwork. That was kind of the third option, the millwork with tile.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

Combustible around. I know. We did it in your living room.

[Corey]

Yeah. Talk about it.

[Alice]

Yeah. And we recently just. Sorry, we're hopping on. If you.

[Corey]

Yeah. So I'll put my living room up here again.

[Alice]

Your fireplace.

[Corey]

Yeah. So I built my home in 2014. 15. Yeah. And anyway, so at this point, I got the firebox. I did non combustible, 10 inches of zebra stone surrounding it, and then drew up what I wanted the finished worker to make. And then we painted that mantle white. This was pretty normal at the time to draw up and have your finished worker make your mantle. When I think about my mom's home, which is like 20 years old, she has massive millwork done in mahogany on her mantle with really beautiful stones surrounding it. So this was a really common thing. You can see this example too. Really beautiful. But you could do just about anything. I think here again you're going to want to get a lot of depth. I do think this is an affordable trick. For the most part you have a lot of different craftsmen involved because you've got your finish worker, you've got your tile setter. Right. You've got to get your guy that's going to hook up. Yeah. So it's not like as much.

[Suzanne]

It's a, you know the, it's a multi step process.

[Corey]

Yeah. The contractor is going to really babysit it and then you had some good dimensions for if you're doing the non combustible material about how much you have to use on the floor in front of the fireplace. I have zebra stone on the ground because it has to be non combustible on the ground in front of the fire too.

[Alice]

Yeah, it was 8 to, let's see, I had 8 to 12 inches around the firebox on the actual face of it. But then coming out you're 16 to 20 inches depth as far as your ground hearth, depending on the size of your firebox. And that's like per inch how much you have to like build that just for again just safety.

[Corey]

So you want to check with codes your builders should know. The fireplace person should tell you when you buy your box what you need to do so that you can design for that. Or if you're a designer, you're going to want to ask the fireplace person where you're buying your insert or your, your box what you need to do to accommodate for code and then that's what you're going to do. Yeah, yeah.

[Alice]

But again, our cute Texas builder, I was just like cost for like that millwork tile. He's like, yeah, just like depending on the level of detail for the millwork will, you know, depend on the final price. But he's like, you're a thousand to three thousand is what he said. Because you're. Especially if you're not doing like a full slab around your firebox. If you're doing tile like just did where you like find one that has a lot of variety that you can't really tell because you tight grouting it and everything. He's like, you're, you know several square feet of that plus the millwork. He's like you're a thousand to three thousand. Which I was like, that makes sense. So if you, it's a great look.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

And it is. When we started this, you're like, I wonder if the pendulum will swing back to this.

[Corey]

Yeah. I haven't seen millwork mantles in a minute.

[Alice]

We're doing one home in Florida and it's a little bit more colonial looking and so we're still doing it there. So I can do depending on style.

[Corey]

That would make sense paths. Yeah.

[Alice]

You would use mill work more than just like a pre cast.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

So it'll be. It's fun to like, like inspect the trends a little bit. So it is. We'll keep you tuned. Is what. What we see.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Alice]

But we've. Yeah. Never has a marble mantle been out of style, I will tell you that much right now.

[Corey]

I agree.

[Alice]

I don't think that that's ever going to swing also.

[Corey]

Never has it been more readily available. It's become normal to do where. I don't know where we would have gone like 15, 16 years ago. We wouldn't even thunk to do it like unless we're doing like some French house. But even then it was a lot of millwork. So it's fun to see the different craftsmen come into play. The materials that become available. Pre cast was a really nice patch in between these two eras to be able to get a look at a certain price point that's non combustible. So. Yeah.

[Suzanne]

Plus I think the like pre cast has come a long way. You know what I mean? Like there's just as they progress, you know, things like precast and kind of not. I don't want to say like inorganic materials, but just things like that. It's going to become. That's going to become more affordable and you know, create more cost savings because you're not having to bring them finished work guy in to, you know, do his thing. So. Yeah.

[Corey]

Do you know what I don't see coming back ever? The corner fireplace. Absolutely.

[Suzanne]

Yeah. No, I. There are some homes being built by mine right now and I walked through.

[Alice]

Corner fireplace, corner the builder and be like, what are you doing?

[Suzanne]

Yeah, exactly.

[Alice]

Shame on you.

[Corey]

You know what? It's hard. It's the space planning is hard when you have a diagonal like that. We have a good friend that's an architect and he's like you just. In classical architecture, you never do irregular architecture and throwing that fireplace on a diagonal, it's like the whole room is not ever going to be quite right. And then a lot of people are going to go ahead and put their TV above that. So you got two focal points at the same time, are you turning your.

[Alice]

Sofa on an angle? Like, what the actual.

[Corey]

I don't know. I. I don't know. Honestly, like, I work really closely with a friend that has a diagonal fireplace, and I'm like, let's just space plan this, because, you know you're going to have to do so much work to get it right, but it is her Achilles heel is having to. And your sister, we completely demolish that and redo it all. So if any of you, for any reason, are thinking about doing the diagonal fireplace, just don't. Yeah, yeah. It's just. It's a really hard thing to overcome. Yeah. That your regular architecture. Yeah.

[Suzanne]

And honestly, if I'm a framer, I would rather just have to frame out the box on a flat wall rather than in a corner. I don't know why that's. Yeah. Why that's even a thing. I think it's because it's like, oh, we're just going to save some space and it gives you more, you know, floor. I don't. That doesn't make sense.

[Alice]

No, it makes zero sense.

[Corey]

Yeah. I just had to say it out loud. Friends. Friends don't let friends do corner fireplaces. And I don't see it coming back. We do see millwork probably coming back in the future. Whether it be stain grade or paint grade or whatever. It's still a really good option today. I think it's still pretty, but I think, you know, if money was no object, I think we'd all probably choose natural stone.

[Suzanne]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Yeah. As a number one. Yeah.

[Alice]

Most people that are, like, building is part of a community. Right. And the builders, it's like, doing this, that might be a standard. Please ask them if they. If you can do it a different way.

[Corey]

Good point.

[Alice]

I would say that because they might be. Well, that's. That's it. That's the only way we do it. And you're like, well, I would pay for that upcharge. Of all the upcharges. I would pay for that upcharge to, like, frame my firebox on a flat, the biggest flat wall, and have your furniture space planned around it because. Yeah, we. We just need to start correcting the wrong.

[Suzanne]

Yes.

[Alice]

So please, like, inform your builder that we shouldn't be doing that. I want it flat.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Alice]

I won't build with you unless you do it flat. Fear factor, guys, please.

[Corey]

Yes, Definitely Help us change the world.

[Suzanne]

One corner fibers at a time, you guys.

[Corey]

That concludes our episode on fireplaces. Thank you so much to our listener for writing it from the uk. Angela, I hope that that answered your question and I hope you guys have been able to tune in to see some of these examples. Thank you so much for listening and I wanted to give you guys a sneak peek idea. We have. You have to check out our online store. We started our Black Friday sales and we're so excited about it. We've curated a special Black Friday collection that's available at amazing prices. Best of the whole year. Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a five star review if you can. It helps other people find our podcast. It helps keep the gas in our tank. We love to hear what you say. We always start our podcast meetings with your reviews. So they definitely don't go unnoticed. We love them. You can also follow us on Instagram. I don't know if you guys know that, but you can follow us at Alice Lane Interiors. I know that's confusing because we're called Dear Alice, but our pot or our Instagram is Alice Lane Interiors. That's where you can see all of the fun projects that we're working on. And then you can also follow us at Alice Lane Home. That's our store side where you can see what's happening at the store. All the latest, greatest products that Corey and I are developing and designing. And then you can Also subscribe on YouTube and you can see these podcasts which is really fun to finally get a visual. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this podcast. Thank you, sue, for all your research on fireplaces.

[Alice]

You bet, guys.

[Corey]

Yeah, you're the best. And we will catch you guys next time. Hey, thanks for listening. If you like our show, please leave a five star rating. It.