Some of the fireplace manufacturer web sites have photo galleries -- you might try them. Here's a link to Fireplace Xtrordinair's. HearthNet.com also has one. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: FPX Gallery

paintergirl94 - yep, way too contemporary for us. I mean, we live in a not old house but we not fans of contemporary at all. justgottabe me - what's that the say about the shoemaker's kids go barefoot? :) I hope you get your cabinets soon. curyly - yes, I think I'll need a rug too, once I get the paint picked and can figure out if I want a couple more chairs in there. Wow, Joann, your home is lovely and I am in awe that you made all those mantles and that beautiful furniture. What I love about your pieces is that it doesn't look like something newly made, but something that has been in the house for years and blends with antiques. Wish we had those skills but alas, ours run in a different direction. I really appreciate all the info that I can pass to the handyman. I sent him one email last night and he sounded very up for the challenge. I'm thinking though, that I will go ahead and get the room painted and everything else mostly arranged so then we can focus on the mantle. And Joann, gardener me is over the moon at your beautiful pond pics. I had those bookmarked a few years ago when we were looking for houses and had hoped to be able to put in a pond. Alas we have too small of a yard for one (just several water pondless features instead.) but your pond pages are still some of my favorites. Oh, and paintergil, here's the picture over the fireplace. I know the other things on the mantle are out of scale and can be moved around though the bronze figurine will likely stay there. Jan - love that you noticed that dark bowl on top of the other cabinet and my blue and white! I can't wait to get to tablescaping....my favorite part of decorating! Now back to the paint store for more samples to slap on some boards. I am almost sold on Baby Turtle in this room but since it gets very little natural light, I worry that it will be too dark. I can't seem to find another green/brown that has as much depth or interest or whatever you call it. :) Flowering Herbs, the next one up from Baby Turtle, seems too light. Thank you, again, all. So many wonderful things to think about.

Think about furniture placement. You may not want to put the fireplace centered in the middle of the wall, as it appears your furniture won't be able to be centered in front of it. That bump with the 4' opening is for a door, I assume? Where does the door lead? You will need to leave that whole area along the stairs/living room wall open for a walkway (leaving 42-48" open along the wall would be ideal, IMO) to walk through the living room to the door. If you center the fireplace on the wall, the furniture facing it will need to be off center to account for the walkway. The window and door bump outs are going to be awkward to furnish/decorate around, I'm afraid. It looks like the fireplace wall is just under 17', but after accounting for leaving open space for the walkway, that gives you just under 13' wide of space to work with for arranging furniture in the 10' area (the length of wall with the 3 windows) in front of the fireplace. Or are you planning to put your couch/es in the area where the room widens (the second trio of bump out windows)? If so, how are you going to use the ~13x10' area in front of the fireplace?

Your room is very nice. I like the understated combination you have going of browns and whites. Currently, your mantel kind of fades into the brick. I love painted brick and that would make the mantel stand out, but in this case, I like your current brick. Would you consider painting the mantel a soft white or whitewash to emphasize it against the brick and stay with the brown-white combo? I also think a bolder piece of art on the fireplace would bring more life to it and add color.