Fireplace Hearth Stone Ideas

Flagstone

• Flat, consistently thick stones made mostly of sandstone create functional hearths at moderate cost. Use flagstone for the horizontal surface by fitting the irregular shapes together like a puzzle. Lay the same material flat against the vertical space below a raised hearth. Alternatively, you can stack flagstone for this area. Choose stones that are at least 2 inches thick.

River Rock

• Use a slab of cut stone for the horizontal portion of a raised hearth. Apply river rock to the vertical portion below. Use small river rocks for fireplace inserts and small fireplaces and progressively larger river rock for fireplaces of increasing size. For river rock with mainly shades of gray and black, use a stone slab of gray granite, clear marble, or white limestone. Use black granite or marble with pink or red swirls above river rock that has red.

Ledge Stone

• This stone comes in many hues and tones, and some is multicolored. Stick with a single color for small spaces inside the fireplace. Use the ledge stone on the vertical space of a raised hearth and cap it with a slab of granite, marble, limestone, or color-matched flagstone in a formal pattern.

Slate

• Slate comes in tiles and is also available in-the-rough, much like flagstone. Slate tiles come in a wide range of colors, so you have the opportunity to create subtle designs. Match the gray streak that ends on one side of a tile with a gray streak of another. These tiles provide a finished, regular, and modern look for an entire raised hearth or standard hearth. Another idea is to use the slate for all of a raised hearth's vertical surfaces and then use a complimentary stone slab for the horizontal surface.

Limestone

• This white, crystalline stone often comes with veins and swirls of rust and yellows. Use pieces that are consistently thick for the horizontal portion of the hearth, laying them flat. Stack pieces that are at least 3 inches thick to form the vertical surface of a raised hearth.