Looks perfect to me! Love your raised hearth!

Looks OK to me.

Looks great to me!
Your fireplace is gorgeous!

This is when I hate being the first to respond - everyone else will have a different opinion than what I did. LOL

Smiles:)

You're a poet and you don't even know it. *Groan*

I think this is the first time I've ever seen three people post at the identical time. Poor scooby thought she was the first, lol.

The wreath looks great there. Wouldn't want too see it 18" higher. It would look like you tried to center it with the band.

Looks great to me too, higher would seem disproportionate to the things below it :)

very pretty

It's perfect. Your mantel looks beautiful.

Hee hee, Parma - I sure did think I was first and had to check back and see if everyone was on the same page!!

Smiles:)

What jringa said were my thoughts exactly. Looks beautiful..very festive. Merry Christmas!!

Thanks! -- Hubby agrees with you all --
Just seemed a bit low to me, but clearly I've been outvoted.

My vote is that it's a little too low -- not much -- maybe 5 inches or so.

If it's still bothering you, why don't you buy some of those little brick clamps (the kind you use for hanging decorations), and hang some ribbon, garland, etc. from up higher and cascading around the sides of the wreath. Kinda like an inverted V, IYKWIM.

I think it's perfect; the eye takes in everything as a whole, I like that.
Higher and it will appear as floating up .

love your rhyme, made me smile when I read it !!!

OK, I may be the odd man out. While the wreath looks good in the photo, and judging by what you have said about the height of the ceiling, the wreath may be too low.

Is the dark band actually a band or is it a ceiling break shadow?

Could you post another photo showing more of the chimney, and less of the floor and hearth. That way, I can better tell. I am thinking I'd like to see you hang the wreath higher. The 16 inches is not too much higher. Also, you would need to put your candles together, and add something else on the other side for more balance and weight.

Here is a mock-up. I did not add any other things on the mantle, but you would need to add several things to balance the higher wreath.

{{!gwi}}

No, no, no, it's not too low! Looks great! :)
Jen

My suggestion would be to place it a little higher than you have it and a little lower than newhomebuilder has it in the mockup; at a level where, if the band went across your fireplace, it would pass through the centre of the wreath. Those little brick clamps that parma mentioned are fabulous and would let you play around with the height a bit.
My thoughts, FWIW.

I thought it was fine until NHB did her mockup! Now I'm not sure. Maybe a tad higher? Also, someone please explain what a brick clamp is?

Somewhere in between the two! Your fireplace is beautiful... :)

HO HO HO, the wreath is not too low......

Don't get too focused on hanging the wreath from one of the nails. If you use fishing line you can hang the wreath at any height. The fishing line (or picture wire) hangs from the top nail and is looped around the wreath. Simply lengthen or shorten the line to adjust the height of the wreath.

Newhomebuilder's mockup might make sense if the wreath were twice as big. I still think it's perfect as is.

I think it looks great. What a gorgeous fireplace.

I just finished tying my tree up with fishing wire. It's a miracle fix-it all! :)

I am not sure y'all are considering the whole height of the fireplace. Sweeby says that it is 18' tall and the 8' mark is where the ceiling shadow/dark mark is. That means that there is about 6 feet not showing in the photo. I think the wreath can go higher, but would like to see the overall height before being sure. I do think the wreath looks fine in the photo provided.

I used to have houses with the high walls and I hung my wreaths high. Here is a photo that shows where I hung one (the wreath is not shown because it was not Christmas when I took this photo.) The yellow area is where it hung. The molding marks 9 feet. Granted, I had a painting just above the mantle.

In the house before the last house, we had a complete two story room like Sweeby and the room really needed to have something up high. During the non-holiday months, I kept a grapevine wreath up there (that's when grapevine was in) and I had a Christmas wreath for December.

{{gwi:1529594}}

Sweeby, where are you?

No..leave it!

What susieq said--do not raise it any more. It will look like it is in outer space then, not part of the mantel and fireplace decor. Very pretty.

I think you should ask them for a consult.

Here is a link that might be useful: Decorators

There's a difference between moving it up a bit and hanging it in outer space.............

Now I'm totally confused...

Once I get the tree decorated and stuff back in place, I'll post another photo with the full room height showing and we can vote again. For now, it seems there's not enough "too low!" votes for me to make the effort! ;-)

Then I would leave it. You can rethink it next year. :)

Question, do you normally have a painting or other artwork over the hearth?

I think the wreath is fine, tho if you wanted it a bit higher, you could just use fishing line and hang from whatever nail would work, and then adjust the height by adjusting the length of the line.

However, I have to say I would want to see much chunkier candles, such as pillars. I think the wreath and all the stone dwarf the tapers.

Another vote for you to leave the wreath where it is. As MitchDes wrote, it's very pleasing for the eye to take in the entire effect with one glance. I would even vote to keep your red tapers as they are. It seems that almost everyone does big fat red and green candles nowadays. Those tapers are very traditional and nicely balanced and they gently lift the eye upward.

I don't think it's a matter of it being too low - for the size it works - but a much larger wreath placed higher would probably be more in scale with the fireplace & the ceiling height.

I think it looks fine the way it is. The PS pix with the wreath higher makes it look too isolated. I love NHB's yellow and white room, but your fireplace is a different situation, as it is continuous without a break. NHB's room had that distinct triangle which provided a frame for the wreath. Just sayin' that is a different situation.

Do you have a santa or snowman figurine or other object you can put on the mantle to balance it out? Two candlesticks on one side and larger object on the other.

It looks good to me at that height.