I don't have a picture but I remember seeing narrow mirrors on each side of a fireplace with lamps or sconces in front.
It would provide lovely illumination in a dining room.

Would it be possible to cut the existing bookcases down so that they would be shorter?

With the pieces you have planned for the room, I don't think you necessarily need furniture on the sides of the fireplace unless they have a particular purpose for your use of the room. Maybe a large floor lamp?

Why do you feel like you need anything on either side of the fireplace? It's not a great deal of space. I think it will look good without anything -- just a great piece of art hung over the mantle... maybe a couple of wall sconces (for lighting) too!

As graywings said, with all the other furniture you'll have in the room, I don't think you need more.

Pretty space!

Susan, your fp looks beautiful!! I am thinking like Graywings....once you load your room with furniture - it may be nice to have breathing room on each side of the FP. Can't wait to see it with all your beautiful furniture!

Smiles:)

Ohh, I'm so sorry you're not able to use your bookcases. Until you can get something for your books there I would leave it empty and agree with the others that it will look nice with everything in the room. Very nice fireplace!

Could you place one of your dining chairs on either side?

What about something like this to stack your books on? I think they look very cool with a lot of books.

I realized I missed part of your question...what to do with books planned for the bookshelf.

Smiles:)

Here is a link that might be useful: book spine shelf

I would wait till you furnish the room and see what you think. If you still want to use the bookcases, a good carpenter or one who is unafraid to go at them, should be able to find a way to utilize them in the space. If you don't want to alter the bookcases and do desire a library look to your dining room, the carpenter who did the job you love on your fireplace and mantle, should be able to build built-ins in the same style as what he has already created for you.

Have you approached him for ideas?

Sounds like you have a vision for your room. This issue has caused a pot hole in your road to that vision. But, where there's a will, there's always a way.

Can you get your carpenter to build you some built in bookshelves on either side of the mantel?

I wouldn't go above the mantel in height, but I'm thinking lower than the height of the mantel, so that the fireplace and mantel aren't eclipsed.

I echo the idea of leaving it until you get your furniture in place.

Another vote to get the furniture in place -- and just for NOW -- just park a couple of chairs on each side of the fireplace.

Then -- in the future -- get your carpenter to create custom bookcases for each side of the fireplace.

Could the oak bookshelves go anywhere else in the house?

If not -- put them on Craigs List! :)

I think it's serendipitous that they won't fit now. :) Your beautiful fireplace will not have to compete with anything for attention.

I'll echo the others and suggest you wait to see how it all comes together before deciding what to do.

Have you considered floating shelves?

Here's a possible inspiration photo .....

Here is a link that might be useful: Possible inspiration photo

Thank you all for the support and ideas. I just really needed something to get my brain going.

Janice, I was thinking about mirrors. It's a dark room so mirrors would be nice. I'll have to haunt craigslist for something. I'm flat out of money.

Teacats, thanks for the inspiration picture. No room elsewhere in the house for the bookcases. My office has wall-to-wall shelves, ditto hubby's office and the library has the new shelving. Got them on craigslist and back to craigslist they go. At least they were a bargain.
Scooby, thanks for the link. Interesting idea but not nearly enough room.
Catkin, ditto on the floating shelves.

mclarke, possibly on the shorter bookcases but also maybe more dollars than it would be worth since we'd have to hire someone to do it. But I'll keep that in mind, thanks. And to those who suggested hiring the fireplace guy to do built-ins, yes, that's a thought I had too but the money isn't there for it right now. Plus, to be honest, the idea of more building and painted at the moment makes me want to scream after 6 months of this stuff.

graywings and all who said to get the furniture in place, yes, that's the plan, I was just trying to get my brain churning with ideas because, as Sandra said, I had a vision for the room and I just hit a pothole and that has me somewhat derailed. I need to change my vision because I do think it is probably the right way to go, with no bookcases, but it has messed with my original idea. :)

What I have to do now, as soon as the excess furniture gets out of my office and out of the library, is figure out what books to box up or stack vertically or get rid of so I can decide where to house the 200+ books of poetry that are stacked all over the floor in the library right now. I confess that I was really looking forward to having room to spread them all out in the dining room. I teach poetry quite often so those are the books I need to have easily at hand and because there are so many of them (and I am constantly adding to them) it's hard.

Thanks again for the ideas and for listening to me whine when the vision went askew.

Oh Susan, I am so sorry! What a disappointment for you. If I were you I'd go with what the other ladies have said and place all your other furniture in place before you think to hard on what to place on either side of the fireplace for now. I think once that's done you'll realize that it will look fine without anything there, except maybe a couple of your dining chairs, until you can have the bookcases custom fit or others built.

If you were going to have the bookcases painted to match the fireplace surround and there's enough space below the mantel, between the fireplace sides and the wall, for the width of the bookcases it might be worth asking your carpenter how much it would cost to have him measure and cut the side of the bookcase, and maybe one or two of the shelves, so they'll fit snugly on either side of the surround.
Here's what I'm thinking it could look like...

I see you posted while I was drawing and said that you think it would be too costly to have them cut down. I would at least ask your carpenter. If he's just doing the cutting and you're installing it may be doable. If not now in the near future. Ofcourse only if the width at the base works out. Wish I were closer. I'd be happy to cut them for you.

justgotabeme - I will ask him but he has to do the cutting and installing and most likely now, they will have to be painted because if I make it more like a built-in, I think it will have to be the same white as the fireplace. The surround is, indeed, the same size, it's the mantle that sticks out just a bit. The bookcase fits on the left but not on the right. And hubby says we could take the base off and probably it would slide in but be touching the mantle which I think would look odd.

Love the drawing you did for me. Thank you! I will save that to consider after the furniture gets back in the room and I have a clearer head. And how fun to see that virtual you did for me again. Boy has that room changed! Those big chairs are gone now, as well as that carpet.

Gosh I can't wait to put the room back together again.

If that FP is on an outside wall, I would save up and put a long window on each side of the FP. There seems to be no
windows in that room? Windows are beautiful, they let in the light and bring the outside in.
It's just my opinion, cause I love a lot of windows.

I have floor to ceiling mirrors flanking my FP in our
family room. The only reason that I didn't put windows flanking
the FP was because on the left side -- there is a chiminy
behind the wall...so instead I put a window on the right
directly next to the FP.

It's just another option, adding windows.

cliff_and_joann - I would adore windows there but we live with houses very close together. On that outside there is a 5 foot wide utility sideyard, all paved, nothing green. So you would see the fence and the neighbor's house. Not a view I would ever want. (Not good neighbors.)

So alas, though I would adore windows in there, I think mirrors are the closest I'll get.

Looking again at the bookcase photo, it looks like you can cut the last three shelves off the bottom of the bookcase and just use the three top shelves next to the fireplace.

It looks like the
first three shelves will die under the part of the mantle
shelf that flares out. Hopefully you'll also have enough
height so that you can add bun feet on the bookcase -- the object is to make the bookcase top off where you want it to top off, just below where the mantle interferes with the bookcase.

Just for the heck of it, take a measurement as see if this works.

BTW...if cutting down the bookshelves works for you, you can then still put two nice windows over the bookshelfs in the future.

Susan, we posted at the same time. If my bookcase
idea works, you can still install mirrors from the top of the bookcase to the ceiling.
Here is the right side of our FP in the family room...
the mirrors are 2 foot wide. everything is doubled with mirrors -- lights, windows, furniture :) and it brightens
the room.

For future inspiration and ideas and measurements ......

Another vote for mirrors on each side -- I wonder if your carpenter could create this kind of mirror?

Here is a link that might be useful: Ballard Designs -- Bella Mirror

If you love the ideas of windows - have you considered using opaque non-colored leaded glass which let in light but not the view? There are many types of glass that can be used and the style is only limited by your imagination. Any stained glass artisan could show you what is available in glass and could design to your specs. They are likely also available at a good glass store. Down the road when budget allows it might be a solution.

Here's a pic taken from the site below. I turned the pic as you may want a vertical window but a horizontal window higher on the wall would work also.

Here is a link that might be useful: unique glass

You are very welcome Susan. I hope it works out for you.
In rethinking I'm so sure you'd have to paint them. See what you think...

cliff_and_joann - wow - is that just a mirrored wall space to the side of your fireplace? I like that!

luckygal - thanks for that website link. I want to do something like that on my sidelight window next to the front door so I've bookmarked the site.

oh teacats, I love that mirror! I wonder if my carpenter guy could do something like that? I have a boring rectangle mirror elsewhere in the house and I would rather have something like this one.

Thank you all. I'm not feeling 100% today so this is nice to be able to sit on the couch and check in on the conversation.

Again -- just a thought -- I wonder if a local mirror company could install mirror tiles or a mirror panel WITH an electric sconce inset? For light and sparkle!

justgotabme - oh, how pretty! Thank you for this. Yep, I agree if I put them there they have to be painted! And thanks for the kind words. It's so so close to being put back together. (Notice I didn't say done because I know that's still a ways out.)

cliff_and_joann - forgot to say that I will measure, for the heck of it, once I can even reach them. Right now they are laying sideways behind a chair and a loveseat and blocked in by the dining room table. :)

teacats - oh I am glad you mentioned sconces! That's one room I could do something like that in. The electrician is coming back on Friday (still trying to fix the new ceiling fans) and I am going to ask for suggestions around that.

Susan, yes the mirrors cover the entire wall-- floor
to ceiling on either side of the FP.
note: the light fixture is on the side wall (over the chair) I think sconces would look good on the wall over the fireplace rather than directly on the mirrors.
You could actually do both, mirrors on the wall above the FP and on the side walls as well.

So I'm just perusing craigslist with nothing in particular in mind and these mirrors just came up. There are two of them and they're 26" x 42" and I'm thinking I could paint them white.

What do you think?

{{!gwi}}

BINGO!!! :)

Those are perfect!

I would go along with the folks who are telling you to hold off until you get the rest of the room in place. Just because you have room on either side for something doesn�t mean you should put something there. If anything, I see those two spots as great places for extra chairs for the dining table.

Sorry, I don�t see those mirrors there, and certainly not painted white. Let the fireplace be the center of attention. Once you hang those mirrors, you are very limited on what will work over the fireplace.

What about some wood panels, something like this? Simple, elegant, and feel like a part of your custom fireplace design:

As for your bookcases, would they work on the end wall to the right of the couch in the new seating area that used to be the DR? Seems like a perfect spot.

Or, behind the new couch, on either end, with a wall-mounted shelf spanning the distance between them like a narrow sofa table. Hang a mirror there, place a lamp, a pretty vase of flowers.

Teacats, you are and I are so often on the same page.

Les, those panels are interesting! Hmmm... Of course you are probably right as are the other people who say to wait until the furniture get back in there. Hopefully this weekend.

What goes over the new fireplace is this picture:

As for the bookcases, I could fit one but not two, on that short wall. I measured that right away. And one but not two, could fit on either side of the couch in the new seating area. The only way I could think of trying it up there is to put one on the short wall and then angle the other one semi-in the corner. (Not sure if that makes sense.

Actually what I meant to say was I was not so sure they needed to be painted, but I keep going back and forth on whether I think they'd look best painted or stained. I do think even I, one who loves stained wood, would like them a bit better painted to match the fireplace surround.
I like the mirrors, but I'd leave them gold tone though, but it really depends on what else you have going on in the room metal-wise.

justgotabme - I get it now. I think I was thinking painted because there is so much wood in the room. Ditto the reason I was thinking to paint the mirrors as there is tons of wood and no metal. Well, except for my bronzes but not gold metal, (of which I am not a fan in my space.)

I'll take pictures after the furniture gets in there and we'll see where it goes from there.

I'll be watching for the pictures. I hope you don't take as long as I do to get things done.

I get what you mean about the angle thing. But, I didn�t mean for the other suggestion that the bookcases should go to either side of the couch, but behind it, as if the couch were sitting in front of a wall of built-ins.

I really do think you will be wise to wait until everything else that must be in the dining space is in place. The final result may be different than you envisioned.

Ah, I see what you mean now Les. That would work if I didn't need to actually USE the bookcases. There's not enough room for me to walk behind the couch and in front of the bookcases. It would push the chairs even more into the path in the library.

I'm going to have to find a way to put the books in my office as these are books I take down and work with all the time. The bookcases will likely go.

oh well.

Personally, I think antiqued floor mirrors would be stunning!

Here is a link that might be useful: Floor mirror

Funny you should mention about not liking the gold -- actually I see lots of gold in the wonderful artwork you have AND in those candlesticks on the mantel .... soooooo ..... those mirrors MIGHT work even better in that original gold finish.

Just a thought!

kmcg85 - omigosh, that floor mirror IS stunning and would be lovely but for two things, the $700 price tag and the 75 pound dog that would chase her ball into the room and run headfirst into the mirror. :)

teacats - good point on the gold in the painting. The candleholders look better in the picture than they do in person and may not stay in the room. My bronzes will likely go in there though. justgotabeme had mentioned gold METAL and there isn't much of that around at all. Shiny brass doorknobs that are going are all I can think of.

My rug for the sitting area should be here on Saturday. I am in love with it on the computer. Hopefully I will love it in person. :) And I just walked out into the garage and saw the black cabinet we used to have the TV on in the library. I think it might work in the sitting space for now. There are a couple of coffee tables on craigslist I'm going to go look at today.

I am getting antsy. I hate having to wait for men with muscles to be here to move the big furniture back into place. Wah!

If you are into antiques look around for a small side table for one side and an wood and leather chair for the other. Just small pieces to richen up the room.