If you want to learn more fireplace mantel information, you can find a great deal of it online. The topic is broad, after all. At the top is the history of the fireplace itself. You might be surprised to learn, for example, that fireplaces are only about 900 years old. But you're probably not doing esoteric research. You want to redecorate your fireplace. This project is the delight of interior designers for a good reason. It offers, after all, so many opportunities. The fireplace has been the focal point in homes for a long time. The cooking may have moved to the kitchen and the heating element to the basement, but the fireplace still holds the crown as a design element.

About Fireplace Mantel Information

A basic breakdown of fireplace mantel information is fireplace mantel type. Some fireplaces--usually three-sided glass-fronted fireplaces--have no mantles at all. Adding a mantel here is an interesting design challenge. Other fireplaces have only shelves. Shelves are obviously the least expensive fireplace mantel replacement or addition.

Some fireplaces have a surround--that area right around the firebox on the sides and top--but no shelf. Surrounds are most often brick, stone, wood panel, wrought iron, and tile. The fireplaces we see and think of most often, of course, have hearth, surround, and shelf.

You're probably most interested in styles. Moving through time, you'll start with the Romanesque and roll through Tudor to neoclassical to Victorian to contemporary. Those are the high points only. Because search engines are an imperfect art, at best, in tracking down what we want to learn about, you want to have leisure and patience in approaching online fireplace mantel information. No one site will probably offer everything you want to know.