What kind of storage do you want? Do you need drawers? cabinets? What are you storing?

There are lots of options for base cabinets of all styles and depths, with art or mirrors above. The top surface could hold lamps, candles, objets, or (gasp lol) nothing, so as not to block the art.

Just some cabinetry below on either side of the fireplace for games, photo albums etc. Trying to avoid shelving since we have it in other areas of the house and I want to keep it simple. Hard to find inspiration photos for built ins without shelving! It's not an exterior wall so we can't add windows.

Something like this? Leave the shelves out and hang art over each side

@jck910 yes I have tons saved like that but none without shelves. I guess we can build ours without shelving and then add it later if it looks too plain.

@tedbixby our space is not set in like that it's an open wall and we have the cabinets for a built in already, significantly less expensive than buying any freestanding piece.

Can you post photos of the fireplace wall? Without seeing the actual space I'm guessing that both sides of the fireplace will need to have something above the cabinets to balance that wall with the fireplace and ceiling. Otherwise the cabinets are going to look out of proportion unless you had them built on the tall side. Your thinking of mirrors, large art or shelving after installment is on the right track. Without seeing the actual space I can't say one way or another if sconces make sense.

I don't think it will be too plain without the shelves if you get large enough art. Also consider putting the TV on 1 side rather than over FP

I will post a picture when I get home later, we made some progress on it.

I saw this post a couple days ago Ideas for Shelving Around 70s Stone Fireplace with Cedar Accent

There are no shelves around the fireplace in this post and they have a vaulted ceiling.

If you don't have windows on either side of the FP, then your choices are cabinets, art above chests, mirrors above chests typically.

@Laurie our ceiling and cabinets look very similar to the one in that post.

Here's a photo of where we are so far. We can add or remove cabinets but I think I like the length they extend on either side. We originally had just the one cabinet with 2 doors but added the third next to it. There is wiring for sconces, we will center them once we set the cabinets and decide on shelves or no shelves. We are redoing the ceiling and beams also. Thinking of painting the wall charcoal gray, the color of that door on the right. Shelves or no shelves?

I would’ve taken the lower cabinets to the corners. That would allow you to center a large piece of art on each side flanked by sconces on each side of the artwork to fill in the negative space.

@shead we could do that, I like that. We weren't sure about one side meeting the wall and the other not but it looks ok in what you did.

It looks more finished and balanced by extending the cabinets as Shead showed. If you decide on putting art as shown, rather than sconces you could do an art light fixture on the top of the frame.

Curious to see the final result as I am in the same boat - I want counter height built ins with no shelves or cabinets above And it’s extremely hard to find pics

@Tricia Reinhart we're working on the 748 other projects on the list the last few weeks LOL... I'll be sure to update when we're done.