There’s nothing quite like a massive stone fireplace to recall distant times and places. Custom home pros like big rocks used in rustic as well as sleek ways to fit the home’s mood and locale. They also commend the way an oversized fireplace anchors a large room or an open floor plan. Architect David Leonard says that a bold fireplace acts as a focal point within airy multipurpose spaces. It’s not easy to work with huge hunks of granite or bulky fieldstone boulders, but the projects here show that it can be worth the effort.

Quarry House On the banks of the Scioto River in urban Columbus, Ohio, sits an abandoned quarry in the midst of a mixed-use development. “Lots of constraints and extraordinary natural amenities,” is how Phillip Markwood describes this site, which his clients picked to build their custom home. The architect wanted to highlight not only the natural environs but the history of the land as well, and a house infused with stone seemed the way to go. In that vein, a floor-to-ceiling double-sided stone fireplace divides a living, dining, and kitchen area from an intimate sitting room and offers a counterpoint to Markwood’s cool architecture. The inner section of the fireplace surround is executed in blue stone slate, which mirrors the floor tiles. Ashlar fieldstone makes up the slightly rougher outer frame. “The concept was to present the stone in layers,” says Markwood. “We wanted it to look carved away as a metaphor for the quarry itself.” Builder: Stonecraft Builders, Columbus, Ohio; Architect: Phillip Markwood Architects, Columbus; Photographer: Brad Feinknopf.

Arch Rival A two-story fireplace composed of native fieldstone draws family members to the great room of a Hudson Valley vacation compound. Pointing toward the fire, nine rectangular rocks form a true supporting arch above the flames.

The rocks are about 1 foot deep and the tallest reaches nearly 1 foot wide and 5 feet high. Surrounding pieces, left in their natural shapes, are secured with recessed mortar to resemble the stacked walls outside. Detailed with a pattern of intertwined branches, the custom wrought iron screen “matches an irregular network of stick trusses that are the actual trusses supporting the exposed roof,” says architect Charles Mueller. Builder: Cal Parlman, Hudson, N.Y.; Architects: Jefferson B. Riley and Charles G. Mueller, Centerbrook Architects and Planners, Centerbrook, Conn.; Stonemason: Ken Makely, Hudson; Photographer: Brian Vanden Brink.

Rock Star

The puzzle piece stonework of this fireplace was designed “to look like an object sitting in the room,” says project architect David Leonard. One big, projecting rock forms a quasi-inglenook and another the massive mantle. Granite boulders of various colors and shapes fit together in an asymmetrical pattern that creates rock projections for display. The rustic fireplace is flanked by the delicate woodwork of vertical grain fir and glass cabinets scribed to the stone on each side. One cabinet door hides a “woodwaiter”—a dumb-waiter system used to bring wood up from the basement. Builder: Michael Hewes & Co., Blue Hill, Maine; Architect: Elliott, Elliott & Norelius, Blue Hill; Stonemason: Freshwater Stone and Brickwork, Orland, Maine; Floor painting: Nicole Herz, Bar Harbor, Maine; Photographer: Brian Vanden Brink.