If you're looking for cheap heat and you don't have a standard fireplace, then what you want is a wood stove - unless you're buying that Boston wood at 300 bucks a cord, as I saw another poster post. There are dozens of good brands. They can be vented in a bunch of different ways. We had one in our last house that had a really cool, section to section polished stainless, insulated 6" pipe meandering up to the ceiling, straight through the sheet rock and roofing shingles to a stainless vent cap. Pretty cool little Jotul stove. Xandra will know more, but I'm pretty sure that you can vent free standing wood stoves through a wall and then have the pipe run up higher outside the house. In other words, I would save the money on a new fireplace and put it into a new stove. Wood is even cheaper if you're willing to work for it or go get it. Pellets, on the other hand, are fairly inexpensive too, and if you're paying a premium for wood, pellets may be cheaper. Pellet stoves for sure can be vented right out the side of your wall. Pellet stoves use some electricity, however - about 200-300 watts. Running 24/7, at 15 cents a Kwh, that's about a buck a day in electricity to add to the operating cost. They are also more prone to break, etcetera. On the positive side, you can control the heat output better, the pellets are not as messy as wood. So there you have the basics.

I've had an wood-burning insert, open wood-burning fireplaces (some with gas starters), open gas logs, and sealed gas logs. My favorite was a sealed gas log unit. I loved it because there was virtually no fumes or mess--it's essentially an easy on/off gas furnace with ambiance. The look can be very realistic depending on upgrades. Unfortunately, it's the most expensive option of the above mentioned. Next best option IMO would be gas logs; again, spare no expense with log aesthetics. Not efficient as a sealed unit might be, but nice for ambiance, ease of use, and low ongoing maintenance costs. I have wood now. I would rather have a sealed gas unit but converting would require a major remodeling. I have free access to wood so that helps. I only use my fireplace in the shoulder seasons to take the chill off an unheated house . . . can't justify wasting energy for ambiance.

@tfitz1006 Thanks! The reason we didn’t want to go with art is because the room is directly to the left of our entryway when you walk in and we have a bench that we are putting a huge piece of artwork over. So you would walk in and see a huge piece of art to the left and the right. feels like too much. We we definitely need some accent piece as well and have some in mind. Thanks so much for the input!

@ Mike Lipsky- sorry im just seeing your question. we love our fireplace in master bedroom. sorry im out of town on business so dont know height of oir fireplace but i do know we’re very happy with height we selected. i do know when we were considering what height for fireplace, we took into consideration view of fireplace when seated in bedroom chairs as well as when in bed so we could see lovely gas fire flames. would love to see a picture of your installed fireplace