We are in the process of building a house so I don't have any pictures of my fireplace just yet. But I did find this article that I thought was pretty interesting on decorating a fireplace.

http://www.fireplacemall.com/Article_Library/Fireplace_Mantel_Decorating__T/fireplace_mantel_decorating__t.html

I have 8 fireplaces (9 if you count the one outside!), one in each room, including the kitchen. My home is a 1780 former tavern/inn/stagecoach stop. Except for the fireplace in the kitchen, most of the others have rather narrow mantles so I can't really layer things on them. I'm considering adding a wider board on top and painting it to match. All the rooms have different color woodwork. The fireplace in the kitchen is large and has a pot hanging swinging arm in it. Haven't tried using that one yet! We just moved in a few months ago and are still discovering interesting things about the house. I'll try to get pics up soon. My most pressing problem at the moment concerning the fireplaces, is that I don't have any really large pictures to put above them!!! I don't want to buy art just for the sake of buying art. I like it to have more meaning than that. I also don't want to hang a grouping of several items because I don't want to put a whole lot of nails into the woodwork. And yes, I will take some cheese with that whine :)

This is the fireplace in my DH's cape in Massachusetts. He has yet to add the mantle top. The tiling is black gloss granite 12 x 12 squares.

I didn't even see this thread when I started my own thread on what drew you to your home- for me it was our fireplace. Here is a pic:

Here's mine

We have two fireplaces. Here's the family room one.

Notice the brass trim on fireplace is higher on left side than right, it is so noticable. I am not original owner of house, had I been the builder would have been asked to fix that immediately. Furniture placement was horrible, spark flew out and burned a hole in new arm of sofa.

So we decided to tear it all out in the spring and add value to house. We tore out everything and had energy efficient fireplace installed. We did everything but the literal placement of the unit and the pipe. Then we reframed and let it sit until Fall, family time in summer was way too important to us. Actually we were hoping someone would submit our name to one of those shows that comes and completes your house project for you. No such luck.

So in the fall we took advantage of the open walls and ran speaker wire/HDMI wire/etc and did a custom 7 point surround system in the room. We were lucky that the wall was already wired for power and such so it was just deciding how to do it all. We made all the wiring accessible in case something has to be worked on, simply remove some baseboard and you get access to the heat resistant tubes that are behind the wall. Also, the fireplace does not actually throw off heat inside, you can actually touch the tubes so there are no issues with damaging the electronics.

Then we retextured the walls, painted and installed the granite surround and hearth. All with only one trip for me to the ER for stitches to my head- yeah granite will fall off and hit you in the head if the mortar is not dry- lol. The original hearth was really nice to sit on but took up so much space. It took two truckloads to the dump for all the debri, took several days as it was solid cinder block inside the faux rock. We considered rocking the whole wall and then thought of framing it all in white wood. We ended up simply using texture to match rest of lines in house. We are totally happy with redo. We have considered putting the speakers on the lower walls on each side of fireplace but will wait on that for when we get new furniture. The tall speakers may work with new stuff.

{{!gwi}}

Here is what mine looks like right now

And here is how it looks at Christmas time. We don't have a tree in this room (no space) so I like to decorate the mantel instead, but keep it simple. The tree goes in the DR.

bibsd, How about your FP, what does it look like?
brick, stone? Can you post a pic of yours?

We have two, one in the living room and one in the kitchen. I'm always changing up the LR mantle. Right now it has a collection of my late mother's Lennox pieces (and a crooked candle I see!):

Bonnie, that kitchen FP is so adorable tucked in the
corner like it is. Sweet!

Joann

Nice design!

Bonnie- love that special kitchen FP. Really cool feature of house.

donaldsg- I love your house, wish I had one.

Here's my summer decorated fireplace -- in the winter we switch the portraits!

Jan at Rosemary Cottage

mine pretty much looked like this until last night.

I've been searching for something to replace the round clock for awhile now. Found this canvas yesterday..and it actually fits the space. Been impossible to find something!

I also had to ditch the red boxes, as I've gotten rid of almost everything red from the whole house (minus one kid's room. Still working on that)
I need to find something other then that little candle thingy to hide an outlet. Took me months to find those boxes.

momto4boys, That looks so elegant, great change.

thanks! :)

In the midst of moving but wanted to thank everyone for sharing their fp pics. Will be back later in the week to comment (moved today, still need to go back to old house to pick up stray things, finish painting & clean; parents arrived today and I have 2 yr old toddlers...life is hectic!!!).

Here's a pic of our fp from the listing (not our things in the photo):

Binsd, you've got lovely millwork around your FP. That, along with the high ceilings call for a nice piece of art. Have fun decorating your new home!

Shannon and Joanne, thanks for the compliments on the kitchen fireplace. We really enjoy it!

Thanks, Shannon. We were lucky to find a house with all the woodwork unpainted. We fully expected to have to buy a house and strip the woodwork.

Bonnieann - I love that brick chimney, too. When we remodel our kitchen later this summer we will uncover an old chimney. I hope it has a hearth like yours!

Momto4boys - I think both looks are nice, just different. Maybe you need a set of blue boxes like the red ones to pick up on the beachy theme of the shells. Could you just paint the red ones?

donalds..I'd love to find something blue. I've been searching :) I've also considered painting the others. They're just a reall cool set of little boxes, and I'd hate to ruin them. I find so much that I've attempted to paint in the past ends up looking cheesy. I may give it a shot, though.

momto4boys- although I loved what you already had done using red, I absolutely love the new look. The pic is perfect. Isn't it funny how one day you find the perfect item and you realize it was worth the wait? Good job.

I agree Shannon. I'd forced so many other ideas, and ended up taking them back after a few short days. Looking back..they were nothing close to what I wanted. I just wanted a change. I came across this when I wasn't even looking. YEA!! :)