Gloucestershire Echo, 17 May 2003
Play with fire
The beauty of marble once belonged to stately homes buy now it’s just at home in more modest surroundings as Chris Warmoll reports
Fireplaces long ago stopped being just a functional hole in the middle of a room to keep the chill of winter at bay.
They are now an essential focal point, not just of a room, but the whole house.
Eve Iravani, managing director of Montpellier Marble in Staverton Technology Park, Cheltenham, even believes they could clinch the sale of a home.
Eve, 40, and her husband Michael, 42, who are both half Iranian, set up the company five years ago and have witnessed a three-fold increase in fireplaces sales during that time.
She puts such an uplift in the status of the fireplace as part of a general move up-market that has seen an increase in the choice of material, colour and contemporary design.
”Fireplaces convey style and are something for the whole room to be arranged around.
”People are now willing to buy a marble or stone surround.
”They are happy to install a marble surround in a modern home where they once thought it was only fit for a stately home.”
With Cheltenham’s rich Regency heritage all around her, Eve stocks a range of Bath and Cotswold stone fire surrounds.
But it is marble that reigns supreme. “Marble is formed over thousands, sometime millions of years.
”It’s a glorified fossil, with its characteristics literally set in stone.
”It tells its own story and is always unique.
”Even the simplest, plainest marble surround needs no embellishments. It’s durable and always unique.”
All their marble is sourced and imported from quarries in Iran, for the simple reason that she has seen no better anywhere else in the world.
The company has its own factory there, where every surround is meticulously carved, made and polished by hand.
”If you put one of our hand-crafted marble surrounds next to one made by machine, ours would have much more personality. The machine finish would look cold, almost clinical – it looks like a kit.”
And despite the war in Iraq, supplies have continued to flow freely.
”We did stockpile fireplaces just in case there was a problem with containers getting delayed in the Gulf, but so far there have been no problems whatsoever,” said Eve.
So what are the big trends in fireplaces?
According to Eve, it’s a pared down look.
”The trend is for simpler, cleaner lines.
”Most buyers are aged between 30 to 45 and they want a younger, fresher look rather than what their parents’ generation might want.
”We bring out three or four contemporary designs each year.
”Fortunately, we have won design awards for them for the past three years.”
Montpellier Marble currently sells 1,500 fireplaces each year, with 95 per cent sold through the trade.
That statistic alone would seem to indicate that people will now spend a lot more time and money getting the right fireplace.
As Eve said: “One has to remember that you will no want to change your fireplace every two years. Our designs will stand the test of time”.