Rosie, itâÂÂs a regular old wood burning fireplace. But thanks for the question. Will it be ok to lower the mantle since itâÂÂs a regular fireplace? Who would I ask to find out? I love the ideas you have for your fireplace!!! And you are 100% correct! There is not enough squirrels on fireplaces in this world! And I want pictures when you are done! O.M.G. catmom. I am completely, absolutely, mouth-gaping-open floored! I love that. ItâÂÂs fabulous, dramatic and absolutely beautiful!! I didnâÂÂt want to look away to type this!! Fabulous job! Kudos to you for biting the bullet and going for it and such a reward!! Do you smile every time you see it? I love this idea, love, love! I am such a sucker for a dramatic piece in a room! teacats, I never thought to paint the door the wall color. But it makes perfect sense. and would help to balance that wall. oh and I really like mirrors. never had considered it there, but now it's all I can see! Nosoccermon, that link is what made me fall in love with the whitewashed look! I think if the FP had a brown or grey undertone as opposed to red it would be ok. I just donâÂÂt know how it would work with the rest of the house. Mama_goose I like your fireplace! It looks perfect in the room. I can see a resemblance between our FPs. Thank you for the visual! Oh you are all fabulous!! IâÂÂm picturing a deep grey with a silver mirror hanging! So we have a new idea in the lead! I am still throwing around the concept of a smooth surface. I feel it would detract from the fireplace feel tho. Then again it may be the perfect element. Hmm. IâÂÂm gonna have to see a pic or mock up something at the house.

aktillery that fireplace is pretty, thanks for the mockup! That would be a lot of stone, and perhaps a difficult install in the corner to get it flush up with the walls - I'm guessing that would be on the very expensive side, but thank you for the idea because I did ask for all options! Errant, I really like that slate, it would look great with the accent wall color either same as the rest of the room or maybe a grey-blue. Would that be a flooring tile most likely? That's how I pictured doing the hearth - remove the raised thing (which I'm assuming is just plywood with tile over) and putting tile directly on the concrete slab, perhaps raised a little compared to the floating vinyl plank. For the insert itself I have the option of "traditional" with fake logs, or "contemporary" which has a glass bed. The latter tends to look like a gas insert when well done. I think that might be a better look than the fake logs which look pretty realistic when on but less so when the fireplace is off.

Thank you for the great comments! I knew it would change the room but I'm surprised at how much it changed the look. When I look in here I almost can't believe it is the same room. I forgot to ask.. Do I need accessory for the mantle or leave it plain? I could do like a trio of small plants under the tv or similar? Patty-cakes42- I know what your saying and I really felt the same way before we had this house built. But, with the layout of this particular living room it is really what works best for the space. I've actually come to love it for the fact that it saves so much space in the room and to me looks better than a big entertainment center. I guess it just works for us and to me looks good. We thought about doing doors to hide the TV but I knew that we would just end up leaving them open all the time. Maybe closing them occasionally when guest come so we decided it wasn't worth doing.

Thanks dyhgarden - this is one of those neither fish nor fowl homes. It lacks many architectural details but isn't really modern. My furnishings include club chairs, an English roll arm sofa, antique tables and chests, and a little modern art. I like to call it eclectic but others may see it as a lack of focus. I would like to keep some sort of mantle. Hadn't considered shiplap.