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Off center fireplace help...

6 years ago

Our off center fireplace drives me crazy. We are doing a whole level remodel so I can reface this thing however I want. I am thinking about extending the stone to the left which will still leave the fire off center but the stone will be more centered for our furniture. I was thinking about going half way up the wall because I thought a wide fireplace to the ceiling in a room with 8 foot ceilings might be a bit too much. But I found this picture and it seems to look okay. I'm not sure why :). Maybe because the stone is light in color? What do you think about this look with an off center fireplace. My fireplace is at floor level, if that makes a difference.

This is what i currently have - trying to mock this up a bit with my new flooring :)

I would keep something like this to the left of the fireplace to balance things a bit -

Any other ideas? It still feels a bit overwhelming when I imagine the whole area in stone but maybe it's okay? There is no dimension to this wall and we are not planning on adding any built-ins. Trying to preserve as much living space as possible since things are already a little tight. Would love your thoughts!

Featured Answer

palimpsest

6 years ago

The stone came out bright but I would probably do slabs like this and pick a similar wall color to the slabs

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Comments (8)

palimpsest
6 years ago
The plainer you make it and less materials that break up the elevation of the entire wall, the less the off-centered-ness of the firebox will matter.

We have treated these by using simple slabs of stone around the opening and no mantle or shelf at all, with everything being a similar color, or we have covered the entire wall with the same material like slabs of stone, tile, or thin brick maybe painted, or painted wood with the narrowest band of stone allowable again very plain and not too dimensional a close to the other wall colors.
Janelle Van
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank you palimsest. Do you think i should extend the fireplace or keep it, using your ideas of keeping the look simple. It does not feel right imo. Have lived with it for a year :(
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User
6 years ago
I agree with pal -- you'll want to keep things very simple. I don't like the attempt at minimizing the off-centeredness of the fireplace in the first photo. I think it looks like a mistake and definitely causes the lack of symmetry to be much more apparent.
Janelle Van
Original Author
6 years ago
Wait, in the first photo the fireplace is not off- center. What do you mean?
Janelle Van
Original Author
6 years ago
This...

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBRGacrSoXP/
User
6 years ago
OK - it must be an optical illusion then, because to me it looks like there's more space to the left (as you're looking at the fireplace). I like the offset fireplace in the last photo you shared very much.
elohbee
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
I like the Instagram picture. If you're going to go asymmetrical, it has to be way off center so it looks like a design feature, not an accident.

I like the look of the stone (I'm assuming you plan to remove the small brick surround you have currently). I think going floor to ceiling would actually add some visual height to the room which would be nice.

If you're unsure, you could try painting the wall (and the brick surround, if its definitely going away) to emulate where you want to put stone. It would help you get the feel for what it would look like. This would let you play with proportion as well, to figure out how wide you want to go. (I think i would go more narrow that it is tall. I like the proportions you mocked up in scrap wood.)

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