A fireplace and mantel should reflect your style.
Your fireplace and mantel should reflect your lifestyle. Trust your gut when looking at different models. With all the new fireplace and mantel designs out on the market today, it is almost a surety that the perfect model is out there waiting for you. A fireplace and mantel should reflect your style. Trust your gut and follow your instincts.
A fireplace should be more than just its mantel. Once you find the right mantel, you can change its character to reflect its surrounding. Most people change their surroundings to fit mantel. You choose its character by the color you paint the wall, the objects you place upon the mantel, and the style of furniture in your room.
Think of the room containing your fireplace as a stage and the different pieces of furniture and décor as actors upon that stage. Do you want your fireplace to play a leading role or a supportive one? Do you want to make it the focal point of the room or should it accent your furniture and coffee table? Do you want a wood burning fireplace, an electric fireplace, or a vented gas fireplace, or a ventless fireplace?
Be sure that your fireplace reflects you and your family. Fireplaces throughout history have always reflected the styles and needs of the culture of the time. Why should yours be any different? Some fireplaces tuck away, timidly peaking out from the corner. Some fireplaces have mantels that big and bold. Some fireplaces are built into entertainment system, or may have a simple set of shelves, or they may stand quietly and efficiently giving heat in the middle of the room.
Paint your mantel vivid colors. Carve your name into it. Hang quilts on the walls above if that suits you. The point is that you don’t have to settle for a traditional style unless that is the statement about your life that you want to make. Your fireplace will make a statement of your life, like it or not. What message about your life do you want your guests to take away with them?
