How do I make a 1970s floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace look modern?

Check the structure before the surface

Refacing hides the surface, not the soundness underneath it. On the older homes around Laurel Park and Mountain Home, we look for stair-step cracks and a shifting hearth before laying a single tile — schmear or veneer over a moving substrate just cracks again within a season, and you have paid twice for one wall.

It is a ten-minute look that tells us whether the 1970s stone can simply be lightened in place or whether the base needs attention first. Get that right and the modern face you choose will read clean for decades, not months.

The low-maintenance modern look

For a retirement-minded household, the payoff of this remodel is not only appearance — it is never fussing with the thing again. A sealed direct-vent gas insert behind clean new stone gives you flame at the flip of a switch, no wood to haul and no cold-start smoke, with Hendersonville's cool valley evenings covered. Natural gas runs the Hendersonville mains, so extending a line to the firebox is straightforward.

We pull the Henderson County permit, pressure-test the run, and meet the inspector — the licensed step a showroom or handyman legally cannot do.

What the timeline looks like

For a household that values quiet, the disruption matters. A limewash or German schmear is the light-touch option — the busy stone is calmed to one soft color in a matter of days, with no demolition and little dust. A full reface or a firebox conversion is a bigger project but still a short one, and we keep it contained to the one wall. Either way, we walk the scope and the schedule with you up front so nothing about the job surprises you. Twenty-five minutes from our Asheville showroom; call (828) 545-0525.