Stone Fireplace Designs

There are literally thousands of fireplace designs and stone fireplace designs to choose from and many different styles. Fire is something that has been used by all societies at all points in history and each of these stages has added its own features and design options for fireplaces, stone fireplace designs being among the most popular and beautiful.

Still, there is a huge difference between the type of designs that you would find in a French chateau, an Irish cottage or an Italian villa. There are also stone fireplace designs from the Far East and orient and many different traditional American designs. Basically, there are as many different designs as styles of architecture, and the ones you choose will be important if they are to fit in with the look and feel of the rest of your home.

However, there are certain features that all modern stone fireplace designs have in common and knowing what these common features are will help you to narrow down your options and start to think about what type of stone fireplace you are looking for.

Starting at the very bottom, all fireplaces stand on a stone or concrete base known as the hearth. This is what the fire will sit on and must be capable of standing up to the intense heat of the fire. While most fireplace designs pay little attention to the hearth other than that it can take the heat, there are some traditional stone fireplaces where the stone used in the hearth is integral to the overall look.

Usually, the fire will sit in the firebox of stone fireplace designs, which is the functional casing for the fire area. This will be surrounded by a filler panel, which is the front face of the stone fireplace designs. The choice of material for the filler panel is important as it is usually the first thing people see. To the left and right of the front panel will be the two legs which rise up towards the mantel. The base of the leg is called the plinth base. These two legs are like pillars holding up the upper structures of the fireplace and there are many designs for these.

Sitting on top of the two legs is the header and on top of that is the mantel shelf of the stone fireplace. The header also acts as a front face of stone fireplace designs in the same way as the filler panel and will usually be of the same material or of a complimentary type of material. The mantel shelf sits on top of the header and is usually wood although it does not have to be.

Many stone fireplace designs will only go as high as the mantel shelf, especially in modern houses. However, for very ornate or grand stone fireplaces, you can go higher. The overmantel is the huge frame that can stretch from the mantel shelf all the way to the ceiling. It will usually consist of an ornamental frame around a rectangular area where a mirror or picture will be hung. Topping off all of this is the crown, which marks the end of the overmantel in a dramatic and ornamental way.