Great Hall Fireplace

It's fireplace day!

First of all, this is my "inspiration" photo.  It's a medieval fireplace in the Tower of London:

Our backstory for this castle is that it was built in the 12th century, and has been remodelled by the early Tudor family who is now living in it.  Some rooms will be more Tudor in mood (wood panelling, etc.) but we imagined the Great Hall as having a more medieval feel.  The open fireplace is an important part of that feel.

Here are some of the elements of the fireplace stuck together with Museum Putty (it's like Blu Tac, but stickier) in situ, so I can get an idea of how to compose the piece.

The mantel will be supported by large corbels, and the chimney breast will be angled as in the inspiration photo.  I'll paint blocks on the back wall, making them nice and sooty, and I'll put in very sooty Poly Filla "stones" at the base.  The whole piece will be painted to look like stone, and I'll use some tiny stick on tiles to embellish the mantel.

Here it is, in the same shot with the Minstrel's Gallery, to show scale.  It could be bigger (it's 6" x 6") but I'm practising selective scale here, and don't want it too big.

I got a flickering unit for this fireplace during my shopping spree in Toronto last week, and we'll make a nice fire for it to warm up the room.

Here's the  mocked up fireplace, with the back wall painted, a few sticks from my driveway, and the flickering unit.