The original goal was to have the entire facade of the fireplace updated to a style common in many Arts and Crafts bungalows. While the fireplace is originally brick, in the past (guessing the '90's), someone decided it would look better with a thin skimcoat of mortar applied and painted. I assume this was done to mimic a more Mediterranean style. Unfortunately, it would have been impossible to restore the facade back to its original condition without damaging almost all of the brick. But, I abhor how it looked.
Originally, I was in communication with an individual in Pasadena, California who specializes in creating Arts and Crafts fireplaces. She create the design, custom makes every tile, as well as, glazes and fires every tile. An interesting thing was she had possession of original tile casts from Ernest Batchelder, who was one of the leaders in the early 20th century Arts & Crafts movement. Originally, I started back in early 2020, but then the world got interesting and I delayed the project since I wouldn't have been able to travel to work through the process. So, I put this project to the side to work on other things around the house.
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| Example from Pasadena Craftsman Tile |
The main reason for updating the fireplace is due to the deep history within our own neighborhood of Van Briggle fireplaces. There are dozens and dozens of homes in our area containing the coveted work of his local early 1900's kiln, which is less than a mile from our home. While it is impossible to have a Van Briggle fireplace in our home, I could have one created using the identical process.
However,... after a lot of thought and an epiphany I had one evening, I decided to not create an entire tiled fireplace. I opted, instead, to replace only the hearth using the same style and methods. I came to the conclusion that having an entirely tiled fireplace would have been slightly overwhelming from a visual standpoint in our quaint house. I found a company called Motawi Tileworks, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They have the same traditional processes, albeit they are a larger, but still small production company. The tiles are all individually handmade on site. I had two bunny rabbit tile made, which are hand carved in clay before being fired in their kiln. This was something I decided on, since my Wife is fond of rabbits and has a childhood story related to them.
I created eight different designs using their available tile sizes. It was a very tedious process as I had a specific total dimension I was working with and had to, essentially, solve a puzzle using the multitude of tile molds they had available. After, having my Wife review the designs, we settled on one that made the most sense visually. After submitting my design to Motawi, they responded that they had just decommissioned several of the tile sizes I needed for my design, due to lack of demand. After some discussion with them, they agreed to use the old casts in order to support the design. Whew! Their design team reviewed and approved my submittal and an order was placed in late December with an expected ship date of late April.
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| Final Design |
I'll skip the details of the tedious prep work, including removing the old Saltillo tile and trimwork, as well as, manually removing four layers of old paint, I had to do before installation. But, I installed the tile over this past weekend and couldn't be happier. It was refreshing not having to cut a single tile, since they were all custom sized for my hearth. Another project complete!
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| Original hearth after removing the old tile and trimwork |
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| Hand-carved Bunny! |
