Fireplace Design and Decor Ideas for Your Living Room
If you have a fireplace in your home, it’s almost inevitable that it’s going to become the focal point. Instead of fighting against that reality, embrace it and find ways to get the room you want by going with a design that incorporates your fireplace.
Here are eight design and décor ideas that let you use the fireplace to your advantage.
Use candles for a nice fireplace design
If you have a traditional fireplace, candles are great accent pieces. Place them on opposite ends of the mantel to create a framing device that gives the fireplace some balance and perspective. Tall candles of real substance are perfect for this kind of design, because you want them to look almost like columns.
Alternatively, some people like to use smaller candles spaced out evenly across the top of the mantel. This gives the fireplace a minimalistic, modern design and can make it appear to be more of an artistic statement.
Raise it up
This is a bit more of a costly endeavor, but the effect can be amazing if you do it right. Instead of living with a traditional fireplace at floor level, get it raised up so that it just becomes another piece of décor in the room. At the right height, you can enjoy it as a piece of “artwork” above your tea table and make it blend better with the rest of the room.
Employ artwork
Filling the space about your fireplace with a painting is a great way to both draw attention away from the fireplace and solidify its place as the focal point of the room. Ideally you want to fill about two-thirds of the space above the mantel so that it feels substantial without being overwhelming or cluttered. For those who have larger chimneys with stonework that stretches to the ceiling, vertical paintings are often the best option.
Mirror, mirror
Not the type of person to display art or can’t afford something in the needed size? One fantastic option that many people go for is to use a mirror instead. They can serve to reduce the scale of the stonework so that it doesn’t dominate the room by filling up a lot of the space.
As an added bonus, mirrors often help to create the illusion that your room is bigger than it really is. And today it’s possible to find mirrors in a variety of styles, some of which are very artistic themselves.
Create framing devices
For those with fireplaces that are large and in charge, you can reduce their impact by framing them in a number of ways. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves work wonders, especially if you can match the color to the fireplace. If the walls around your fireplace is differentiated by standing out or being recessed, another technique is to paint those walls in a separate color so that they look like columns. You would then likely want to choose your color scheme based on these “columns.”
Match the palette
Most people like their rooms to have a theme, so if you have a fireplace that stands out, one of the smartest things you can do is to plan the color palette of your room to match it. Gray stonework, for example, might lead to a living room with gray couches, gray curtains, and strategically placed accent pieces in this same vein.
People faced with a white fireplace may even wish to choose their palette and then repaint the fireplace to match it. This can really help to tie your room together because the fireplace will stand out from the wall and seem of a piece with your décor.
Hide your TV
With today’s flat screen TVs, lots of people are tempted to mount theirs in the space above their fireplace, but often this ends up looking tacky and out of place. One solution that can work wonders is to hide the television behind a piece of artwork on the wall that can be moved out of the way using a remote control!
Flowers, vases, clocks, and such
Those three things, along with candles, are traditional ways to dress up your mantel over the fireplace. Some people, however, like to change things up by taking them off the mantel and using them around the fireplace as a kind of play on tradition. Doing this can be your way of saying that you acknowledge tradition without fully embracing it.
Author Bio: Richard Dobbins writes about fireplace’s decor and accessories for Northshore Fireplace. Richard enjoys working on his home improvement and décor projects with his wife in his time away from writing.
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I really want to have a fireplace when I get my house! These are all such great ideas.
These are all fabulous decorating ideas. We’ll be buying our first house this year. I’m so excited and I’ve been looking into a few design tips.
I’m glad you guys have enjoyed the ideas!