Last year I started searing for a Victorian Fireplace to re-instate into the smallest bedroom. There would have originally been a fireplace in this room, but sadly at some point it’s been removed.
I searched both Gumtree and eBay for some time and actually ended up finding and buying two.
Despite the first one I purchased being listed as “victorian”, one was a reproduction and clearly quite new, so I was a little disappointed and decided to re-sell and keep looking.
Eventually I found and purchased a true Victorian beauty which had been saved from a house by a builder in Leicester. He popped it on eBay and sold it to me for just £70.
It came complete with its original insert, soot hatch and grill. I think it’s just stunning!
Of course over the years it’s been covered in various layers of paint as trends have changed. I knew I wanted to bring it back to its former glory, stripping it back from all that paint and polishing it back up to its original raw iron finish.
To do this, I used a tutorial from one of my favourite blogs, Little House on the Corner who wrote a fantastic step-by-step guide after restoring not one but two original fireplaces! I highly recommend checking out their tutorial here!
I wanted to share some photos of this restoration and document its before and after!
You can see how amazing the Peel Away paint stripper works, which was recommended by Little House on The Corner! I only needed to apply this once and it took everything right off!!
I absolutely love how it’s revealed a level of detail on the fireplace that you couldn’t see before after all those layers of paint!
The only problem I had with the Peel Away paint stripper was that as it dried, it would re-clog all those little details and scraping away such small areas really wasn’t practical.
I posted my a picture on Instagram (you can follow me here if you’re wondering) and the lovely couple from A Foot on the Ladder advised me to use this little nifty tool:
It’s a wire brush drill bit, which simply goes on the end of a drill. It was something I didn’t even know existed! But oh boy I am glad to have been recommended it!
It worked amazingly, buffed up the fireplace to a shine and took away the need for hours of scrubbing at those tiny little details!
The level of detail is absolutely stunning and has made SUCH a difference!
I can’t be more thrilled with how this restoration turned out, it was surprisingly easy to do (Peel Away is amazing!) and restoring this fireplace was so so very worth it.
I apologise for the incoming picture spam – but c’mon, just look at it!
To finish up, I added a little bit of black grate polish to protect the fireplace and give it a matt black finish.
What a difference a bit of restoration makes – look how much better even the insert now looks!
So that’s it! I still have the shelf to restore before we can properly fit this to the wall, but I’m ridiculously pleased with how well this has turned out.
It’s definitely going add some lovely period charm to this room and I think will add a real focal point. I can’t wait to get this finished!! What do you think?
Costs
(rounded to the nearest pound)
New Tools Purchased:
Wire Drill Bits £4
Materials Used:
Peel Away 1 £35
Grate Polish £5
Total: £44
2 Comments
This is amazing! Can I ask, did you use 5KG or more? Want to restore our fireplace and working out how much I need!
We bought a 5kg tub and barely used 1/4 of it! A little goes a long way – although you may use slightly more than us depending on how many layers of paint you need to get through and the size of your fireplace. But 5kg should do the job!