The brief
A bright, coastal-lit living room needed a focal point: a floating chimney breast with a linear fire below it and the television set in, all reading as one sculpted piece rather than a stack of separate elements.
The finish had to stay calm in strong daylight - this room is flooded with it - without looking flat.
What we did
The chimney breast and fire ledge were formed as a single continuous volume, then finished in a soft-polished plaster in a warm stone grey. A soft polish rather than a high burnish was the right call here: it keeps the trowel movement visible without throwing reflections back at a bright window.
The television recess and fire opening were plastered through - reveals, returns and soffits - so there are no visible frames or trims. The plaster simply turns the corner. Heat around a linear fire is real, so the surround was built up on a heat-resistant board and the plaster specified accordingly.
The rest of the room's walls were finished in a fine plaster in a lighter tone so the media wall sits forward as the piece it was designed to be.
The detail
- Chimney breast, media recess and fire ledge as one continuous form.
- Soft-polished plaster in warm stone grey - movement without glare.
- Heat-resistant build-up around the linear fire.
- No trims or frames: the plaster turns every corner.
The result
The family has a fireplace wall that is the whole room's anchor and needs nothing from them. Polished plaster around a fire takes the heat and the handling, the hand-trowelled movement hides marks that a flat paint would show and the surface is repaired by hand if it is ever knocked. In the coastal light it reads as soft cloud; at night the fire and the recess glow within it.
