The fireplace originally featured deteriorating stonework, damaged tiles, and an outdated fireplace cover. Restoration began with cleaning the entire existing stonework and surfaces. Old tiles were removed and replaced with a new sand and cement base. Recycled tiles were hand cut and broken on site to create individual pieces. From there, we laid them in a crazy paving pattern. The stonework was painted and then we hand filled each individual joint with no more gaps to replicate traditional mortar joints. Finally, the fireplace cover was painted, and all components were reinstalled and created a refreshed and timeless feature.
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @WinnieWebster. It's wonderful to have you join us and many thanks for sharing your project with us.
What a beautiful restoration of an old fireplace. It's clear a huge amount of care and patience went into bringing this feature back to life while preserving the character of your 1860 cottage. The crazy paving hearth works perfectly with the age of the home, and painting and re-pointing each individual stone must have been a labour of love.
I'm sure many of our members tackling heritage homes would appreciate hearing a little more about your approach. How did you go about selecting and cutting the recycled tiles for the crazy paving pattern, and were there any unexpected challenges along the way?
Many thanks again for sharing your project. I hope we get to see more of the restoration of Winnie Webster in the future.
Mitchell
