For some homeowners, a fireplace is a welcomed sight. Not only does a fireplace offer warmth during the colder months of the year, but it can also make your home feel cozy. However, for those who love interior design, a fireplace can throw off their overall vision and become a sticking point that doesn’t always blend well with colors or themes.

No matter which camp you find yourself in, you can incorporate your fireplace in any home design and make it work. But depending on the style, texture, shape, and color of your fireplace, you may need to get a little bit creative.

Whether you have a traditional gas-operated fireplace, or if your fireplace features faux logs that mimic the feel of a wood fire, you can still work other elements into the living area that accent or complement your fireplace.

In the following, we’ll explore a few ideas for incorporating your fireplace into your overall home design. And it’s probably much easier than you think!

Fireplace as a Focal Point

If you love the look and feel of your fireplace without any added decor, then you’re in luck. Because if this is the case, you can simply use your fireplace as the focal point of your living area. But you’ll want to accent its texture with other elements as well.

A few ideas for accent elements that you can place near your fireplace include the following:

• Scented candles
• Ranch style decor
• Add a mantlepiece
• Brass decor
• Bronze or bronze-colored pottery
• Animal skin rugs
• Floor pillows

Your choice of accent pieces is going to largely be dictated by the color of your fireplace. For example, if you have a raw, brownstone fireplace, lighter colors, brass, bronze and the like will complement this area nicely. But if you have a fireplace of raw brick or painted brick, you’ll want to contrast your colors to blend in with other elements of your living space. This will help keep a balance within the room while still nodding to the fireplace as a focal point.

Corner Fireplaces

While a fireplace can be placed anywhere, those placed in the corner of a great-room present the most difficulty. And this is simply because unless the fireplace is offset along a wall, when it’s in the corner, this creates a natural focal point. But what if you don’t necessarily want your fireplace to be your focal point?

For this puzzle, you’ll need to get creative. And you can do this by offsetting the focal corner by creating a matching corner. For example, using a partition on the opposite corner of your living space (ideally with the same color scheme as your fireplace) will create a balance between both corners. And this will mute the imposing focal point that a corner fireplace creates.

Alternatively, you can also caddy corner furniture in the opposite corner to create a balance and in this case, the larger wall of the room will become a focal center.

Flat Fireplaces

Just about any fireplace is going to deliver texture to your living space. But a flat fireplace, typically those made of brick that are built flush in conjunction with a wall, usually has a small hearth. But these also offer the most possibilities for design.

With a flat-faced fireplace, you’re given the opportunity to hand your TV above the fireplace thus making this the central focus of the room. But if you don’t want this type of juxtaposition and you want to get the most out of your fireplace, there are a few more options.

Accenting a flat-faced fireplace can be done with a variety of elements. And depending on your chosen theme, you should select tones and object styles to suit.

For example, you may decide to hang accent decor on opposing sides of the fireplace such as sconces or floating shelves. Or if you prefer, having standing decor that accents your fireplace such as large vases near the base will allow your fireplace to have depth instead of appearing flush against the wall.

Other elements that you may include are placing a rocking chair near the hearth to add depth, or a small area rug with floor pillows to give the fireplace a bit of coziness.

No matter what style of fireplace you have in your home, with a little ingenuity and creativity you’ll be able to incorporate it into any design theme that you choose. Just remember to keep all fire hazards away from your fireplace, and perform maintenance as needed.