These are ALL amazing ideas! I am a huge fan of IKEA, so I will definitely check out the Besta cabs - I have a lot of smaller statues and items to display that feel like they could work with shallower shelves. Gwbr - that's an amazing idea. I love the thick mantle and the imbalance of the space. I also certainly have plenty of art to fill any of those walls. Thanks for taking the time to sketch it out for me. Chickadee - I was thinking about panels of some kind all the way up. Speaking of IKEA, I kind of love the idea in the attached URL - they used Nexus yellow/brown drawer fronts -check it out! Unfortunately, I don't have any more pictures from further back right now, but these ideas are a great place to start. Please keep them coming and thanks again for your help and warm wishes! Here is a link that might be useful: Ikea nexus fireplace surround

Anything could be dated tomorrow. That is what keeps the home furnishing and interior design (or most other) businesses going. Someday Soon asked for an affordable idea. I just showed a picture from Someday Soon’s idea book. My suggestions assumed that Someday Soon had some skills and some tools. If Someday Soon does not have tools, they could just paint everything on the fireplace area black, including the tile, which would eliminate the drywall repair steps. An an alternative to real wood would be a small amount of wallpaper in a frame to simulate the fireplace box. I would put it in a frame hung on the wall, and not glue the wallpaper directly to the wall. I have been in wallpaper hell enough times that I know how fast wallpaper can become dated, and how hard it is to repair the damage caused by wallpaper.

Installing a wall mounted small gas fireplace in our bedroom. The fireplace is 16" wide by 27" tall and arch shaped. It will be raised about 2 ft off the floor so that we can easily see it from bed. It will be built into a niche in the wall that was created for the potential fireplace during construction. The space is 30" wide and very close to a doorway so I need to keep the "design" within the 30". I'm searching for creative ways to use tile/decorate this area and am not finding anything even close to the ideas in my head. What I am thinking is that the space below the fireplace will be left open and I will put in decorate logs. That I found a pic of! I want to tile around the fireplace with maybe red subway tile with some accent tile included. Tile would then run up the sides of the 30" space to the ceiling, framing this area in sort of a chimney effect. We don't want to use the same red tile all the way up as it might seem too WOW for a space you want rest. My idea was to use chair rail and other trim tiles to create a sort of mantel effect right above the fireplace. There can't be an actual mantel due to being so close to a doorway/walking area. The small area between the fireplace and the ceiling I would stencil a design to be determined. Not sure if any of that makes sense but I would like to see other similar ideas and can't find anything. Almost all fireplace surround pics are just traditional floor fireplaces with just the usual tile and wood trim around. Yes there are modern fireplaces but usually those have the same tile going from floor to ceiling. Any ideas are appreciated!

When decorating your mantel think of the rule of threes. For instance a lovely landscape painting with a candlestick or vase on either side. A nice antique oak mantel clock would fill the bill for rustic. Or a framed old map of your region. Check local or regional artist who work in wrought iron. They may be able to make a fireplace screen for you.