hearth refurb advice

[beanwalls]

Hi All,

I'm refurbing my new house - have removed all carpets and had floors sanded. The downstairs fireplaces are tiled and I'm going to leave them, but upstairs one fireplace has been removed entirely in the main bedroom, and the second bedroom isn't in use. When I took up the carpets I found the main bedroom one as rubble and someone has filled it for me, the second bedroom one was in better shape but needs a bit of refurbing.

My question is - what can I do to make these look good? I don't need to remove them and I like a bit of rustic look so they don't need to be perfect, but how can I make the main one smooth and what kind of paint do I use to paint it? And the second, what do I use to replace some crumbling bits and fill in cracks, and again paint..?

Here's a photo of them for reference:

http://imgur.com/a/HQfyb0y

Any advice welcome!

 

[beanwalls]

If using concrete filler, should I worry about it dripping through to the ceiling below?

Or perhaps I should get a concrete slab cut to size and fitted - is that how this should be done?
And who do I contact to do that if so?

 

[argile_tile]

you could use a "floor cup" / masonry cup / concrete cpu to take those down a notching so all three surfaces are the same hight (obviously, protect the wood)

if you get a little height to install somethig - you could put down a "wood vaneer" which is very thin.

I have no clue why it was filled with concrete not wood. mystery to me. that's rhetorical. I have no idea if the floor is secure.

Obviously hiding it by putting a plant there might work.