02-03-2011, 08:43 PM
If you never use it lose it, If you do use it don't put your TV over it, forget the travertine, double the size of the fire box lower it down and get rid of the raised hearth, use a nice marble or even a stamped concrete at floor level, Brass and glass screen, have a solid oak cover made that takes up the rest of it including the wall where the TV sits now, fashion that space to my left looking at the picture for your entertainment center, large ornate oak mantle at least three corbels, forget about the stain and use an alcohol dye on the wood just to pop the grain and leave the natural color of the closed grain then a sprayed or hand rubbed Matte urethane finish.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams
John Adams