I put the TV on a separate wall than the wall which will eventually have a wood burning stove. (The mantle and backdrop is already in place. Right now I am dealing with homeowners insurance that doesn't want me to have one.) I don't watch much TV at all, and I really dislike - for me - having an ugly black box being the center of living room attention. When I have guests over, we're here to talk. I can think of exceedingly few occasions I'd be watching the idiot box with guests. Probably if they were here several days, we'd rent a movie or two via Amazon Prime. (Moot point right now, COVID and all.... but hopefully that won't last...) And with a wood burning stove, the exhaust pipe will go up and bisect the view of any TV over the mantle. I sat down on the couch to figure out the best viewing height - which is well below what the mantle might ever be, at least on this couch. It would be fine if I could lean back and rest my head, to have something over mantle height - assuming I'd go with a regular fireplace. But at six feet tall - there just isn't a couch or sofa like that. Plus as others have said, what about decorations? I enjoy decorating my mantle for various holidays! After all, that's really what mantles are for, right? The thing is off to the side, and it does not get glare there, either.

I recommend you visit a quality fireplace shop rather than a home center and view their displays. We have a Lenox in our basement about 3 years ago. It has separate settings for both the flame and embers. We bought only the insert to install into a wall rather than one in a full mantle. Ours is used for supplemental heat as well as the ambience and requires 220 volts. Because electric fireplaces display the "flame" onto a mirror, one would never mistake it as being a real fire. Nevertheless they are safe, without risk of fumes, and can be placed almost anywhere. Because of the mirror, the camera flash does not capture the flame, but here is ours.

Yes, we installed a Lenox in our basement last spring. The fire is realistic but the main purpose was to provide auxulary heat - especially for spring/fall when the furnace is not running much. We did not want a gas log set because they generate too much heat to enjoy and personally do not believe the unvented ones to be safe. With electric, the fire and heat are separately controlled. A photo is included amongst ones of our basement linked from "My Page"

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.