Whether your living room is large and spacious, or small and cozy, a fireplace, especially in modern homes, where older features are more often than not simply removed, a fireplace is that cozy corner of your house that you can always retreat to relax and stay warm by.
So, with such an important feature as this, you want to make sure that it is looking its best!
Well, worry no more, as we have found a collection of ideas and inspiration for just what can be done with your home furnace, even in the most cramped of conditions.
So, starting this list with a current trend that is fast becoming one of the most popular ways of presenting a fireplace, we have this exposed brickwork surrounding the fireplace.
For the longest time, one of the biggest trends in interior renovation has been to cover up the older aspects of the home with more modern designs.
This is the case for many homes across the country, from old converted barns being completely covered in new plaster to cover up any remaining would, to covering older tiled flooring with more up-to-date materials, such as hardwood or cork.
However, a recent trend in the last few years has seen many people wanting to uncover a little of the original character that many of our homes once had, by stripping parts of their homes of all this excess.
The same is true for fireplaces, with many homes now allowing their fireplaces and their brickwork to be seen and enjoyed for the first time in decades, maybe even centuries!
If you know that your home is on the older side of things, why not try this idea in your living room today?
Quite often, especially with older homes, you’ll find that without proper renovation or extensions at least, you are left with very little space in just a single room.
However, these are the places where a fireplace shines, as they can more effectively keep that area warm and cozy, even in the coldest parts of the year.
That compactness wasn’t just a necessity out of a lack of money, it was a design feature!
This living space design helps enhance the older beauty that these smaller homes have, combined with a wooden mantelpiece that helps carry its rustic charm even better.
When it comes to these older buildings with fireplace spaces in them, we often see the space empty of any actual… well, fireplace!
While these small heating stations in our homes have remained popular with some, many other homes, with the advent of heating from boilers and radiators, have often had their fireplaces removed, because they feel outdated, or are otherwise considered an eye-sore.
This leaves many fireplaces without a fire to place there, sadly.
However, this doesn’t mean that this space cannot be turned into something that feels just as homely
An empty fireplace, as this photo shows, can be turned into the perfect centerpiece for a living room, with plenty of pictures, heirlooms, decorations, and other items finding a place where the old fireplace once was.
Plus, it doesn’t have to stay empty of a fireplace forever. There’s always the opportunity to have a new one installed, bringing that utility back to your living room!
Of course, while many homes may have lost their fireplaces, the skeleton of their place in a living room is often still there, often in the shape of a mantelpiece that has been left behind while the fireplace itself was removed.
That means that, when the time comes for a full room makeover, there is an opportunity to have a new fireplace installed back into the slot where one once sat.
The home in this picture has done just that, having a new fireplace model fitted into a pristine white and gray living space, allowing it to truly pop out as a centerpiece for the rest of the room.
Plus, when the weather grows cold, and the fireplace is finally filled once again, the light walls allow the soft, flickering orange light to bounce off of these walls, further helping illuminate without the need for a light bulb!
This is a fireplace concept that might be better off used for slightly larger homes and living rooms, rather than the smaller ones that we have been discussing so far.
However, when it comes to opening up your living as part of an open plan, this design might be just what you need to help perfectly delineate the separate living spaces.
It has become a very popular choice in interior design, as this photo shows, to start using fireplaces, whether part of the old room or even building a new one from scratch, to have the fireplace as a dividing point.
This allows you to create a clear separation from the living area to the dining or cooking area, whilst also allowing for a coherent design to be used across both old rooms as they become one.
This is a feature that many homes will have, even if they don’t have a fireplace itself!
As we’ve already mentioned, fireplaces often come with a mantelpiece that stretches over their width.
These little shelves can serve to be just as much of a centerpiece to a room’s design as any fireplaces can, especially when using the right material.
A mantelpiece can be made from virtually any regularly used material in any home.
More extravagant designs may use stone such as granite or marble, but many excellent mantelpiece designs, like the one used in this image here, are just beautiful for using older or treated wood (so long as it has been treated or is naturally good at resistant heat and fire damage, after all)!
The only material that would likely be an issue is metal, as it could potentially become too hot to touch safely, thanks to the proximity of the fire.
Still, your mantelpiece should be in front of and over the fireplace, not in it!
This modern fireplace design is perfect for a home that you want to have a fireplace in, but hasn’t had one in it, as far as you can tell at least!
Many homes, especially many built in the last few decades, may not have even their original fireplace, mantelpiece, or chimney in them anymore.
This can make adding a new fireplace somewhat tricky, as your home furnace will need to both contain any fuel it needs, as well as a place for the smoke to travel.
Fortunately, these are aspects that many modern fireplace design covers, such as this hanging fireplace unit!
Not only is it unlike pretty much any other fireplace that we have covered so far, but it is also the perfect way of adding new fire to a living room that might otherwise be unable to house one!
Along with older fireplaces becoming more popular once again, one of the other older interior home features that are making a comeback is wallpaper designs.
So, why not combine the two, to create a fireplace feature that is both warm, and beautiful to look at?
Make sure that your wallpaper is resistant to heat and open flames, of course!
Now, this mantelpiece design takes extravagant to a whole new level!
While many mantelpieces are content to simply run across the top of a fireplace, this design here becomes a centerpiece in itself!
Separated from the wall it is placed against with a beautiful blue coat of paint, and being ornately detailed, this is the perfect accent to have against your fireplace!
Final Thoughts
So, there you have it!
Be sure to let us know what you come up with for your living rooms!
Hi, my name is Maisie Park and I have recently moved into the home I renovated with my husband. It took an entire year to get it just the way we wanted it, and I learned a thing or two along the way!
We started this project together with no prior experience in renovating houses or home improvements – I think the best I had was that I knew how to change a lightbulb.
Flash forward a year and here I am, creating a website to guide others through these challenges.
Please use my website as a source of inspiration for your own home – does your porch need a fresh lick of paint, by any chance? We all deserve to live in the house of our dreams, so what’s stopping you? Let’s get started!
