Adding Style to your Fire with Millbrook Stone

The hearth has long been the focal point of family gatherings and indoor entertaining. What better place to relax after a long day at work and make warm memories with friends and family? Now is the perfect time to make your fireplace the center of family traditions by investing in a striking, hand-carved mantel and surround—an ideal way to enhance your interior décor and increase the value of your home. Hand-carved fireplace mantels and surrounds transform your living space with intricate detail and stunning stonework. With so many cookie-cutter designs flooding the home market today, custom design and the ageless beauty of stone is being sought more.

The durability and craftsmanship that makes your home uniquely yours is taking precedence over former trends of stark minimalism. Finding expert carvers is no simple undertaking, as trading schools, even in Europe, are disappearing, making their work in great demand all over the world. Some of the few that still practice this art have developed a revolutionary form of compressed stone, resulting in reconstituted stone, preferable to real limestone because its harder consistency makes it better suited to the details, shadows, and sharp edges that distinguish the traditional Tudor and Gothic styles they often recreate. One of the great qualities of well-carved stone is that it conveys a sense of drama and mystery. Once it’s been distressed, the look of composite stone so closely resembles natural stone that designers and architects can rarely tell the difference. This exceptional material—paired with expertise of master craftsmen—can turn any vision of classic beauty into reality. Elaborate decorations include fireplaces, urns, balustrades, columns, window frames, and more.

For more information, you can call Millbrook Stone, Inc. at 408-294-2445 or visit their showroom located at 1813 S. 10th St. in San Jose. www.MillbrookStone.com