A marble fireplace in Redditch

This Redditch project needed a proper fireplace focal point without a chimney breast. The customer wanted a Sierra fireplace in Blanco Micro marble with a Celsi DLX 600XT electric fire, but there was no recess for the fire to sit into. That made the made-to-measure detail important.

Rather than treating the room as a standard fireplace opening, the Sierra was manufactured as a flat-wall fix with a deeper rebate. That allowed the electric fire to sit neatly inside the surround and gave the finished wall the appearance of a built-in fireplace.

The local setting

Redditch homes include many rooms where the fireplace wall is not a traditional chimney breast. For customers in that situation, an electric fire and a made-to-measure marble surround can be a practical route because the design is not dependent on an existing flue or recess. This project is the clearest published example on the site for a Redditch fireplace built around a flat wall.

It is also a useful example for any customer who likes the look of a proper surround but has been told the room is too plain for one. The answer depends on the chosen fire depth, the surround design and the way the finished wall will be used. Here, the electric fire made the practical route possible.

The brief

The customer wanted the Sierra fireplace in Blanco Micro marble with a Celsi DLX 600XT electric fire. The key issue was the wall itself. With no chimney breast and no recess, the fire could not simply be placed into a standard opening.

The brief therefore became about creating the look and presence of a traditional fireplace while respecting the room that was actually there. The Sierra design gave the customer the marble surround they wanted, while the electric fire made the no-flue route possible.

Made to measure

We manufactured the Sierra fireplace with a deeper rebate to accommodate the Celsi DLX 600XT. That extra depth allowed the fire to sit neatly within the surround despite the lack of a recess behind it.

Finished in Blanco Micro marble, the proportions were carefully adjusted so the fireplace still felt balanced on the wall. This is where made-to-measure work matters: the surround, fire depth and visual opening all have to be considered together, especially when the wall is flat.

The finish

The completed flat-wall installation gives the room the impact of a feature fireplace without a chimney or structural fireplace opening. It is clean, contemporary and straightforward to live with because the fire is electric.

For a similar project, start with the marble fireplaces and electric fires ranges, then send room photos and measurements so the wall depth can be checked. The Birmingham marble fireplace is a useful comparison because it also pairs a marble surround with an electric fire, while the Solihull marble surround shows a surround planned around an existing stove setting.