We just finished this real stone fireplace in the Duluth, MN area with a reclaimed timber mantle and the hearth inset into the floor. All ready for the TV to be mounted!
Just finished this mural that will be framed in sandstone and placed above a fireplace.
We just finished this massive natural stone chimney on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Satisfying and exhausting!
We spent a good part of the summer on this massive project that included a 20-foot-tall fireplace.
I took my own advice and built a masonry heater for my house. It's complete with a stone mural and pizza oven. Those beefy trim stones had a previous life on the mean streets of Duluth. The large "pebbles" got their rounded shape from constant churning on the Lake Superior shoreline.
More than a typical fireplace, a masonry heater is built with special masonry blocks that absorb heat from a quick, hot (and therefore efficient) burn. Two burns per day will keep the heat radiating from the masonry "mass" all day and night. Less heat goes up the flue and you get a lot more mileage out of your wood fuel!