I can't tell for sure, but does the wall to the left of the fireplace angle downward? Can you give us more views-ie. from the side of the fireplace wall?

If you want to put something on the tall wall, consider a very big wreath that could be made in your navy blue and gold and then having one to change out at Christmas. Anything you put out on the mantle has to have enough proportionate height to it also.

I don't know your style but I suggest some tall vases clustered on the ends of the mantle for instance.

Hope that helps.

I would lean a big piece of art on the mantel.....make sure its pretty tall though. And use tall vase/vases on the hearth.

Paint both pieces of wood a dark gray

Hi Megan, thought I would share a picture of my living room, this might help you visualize your idea, since we have the same kind of stone mantle (though my ceilings are lower...) My cooch is charcoal grey with chrome trim and navy accent cushions. I personally never liked the brass trim on the fireplace doors and would like to change it (yeah, I know, brass is back in style).

In my own personal taste, I like the navy, but not the gold accents. But really, either will be nice. I would say gold accents will havea more traditional and formal feel, while chrome, silver and stainless steel feel more modern.

I had something similar. I covered the top part w/sheet rock and painted it the same color as the room. Jack-hammered the hearth and put Travertine for the fireplace surround w/a new complete to the floor mantle for the fireplace. LOVE it!:)

All great ideas, but paint the black trim around the fireplace in beige so that it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. IMPORTANT!!! Make sure you buy the right type of paint that can with stand high heat.

What a nice sized you to have! First thought, the fireplace is a focal point and it is also the boss in the room because the stone color dictates the direction you go in with color. From the photo it looks like there are gold undertones in the stone so a Cream, Gold and Navy color palette is great.

To answer your question, a large piece of artwork or a large mirror would look spectacular, as they stated on posts. Anything big and oversized would look fabulous. Good luck!

The wall size - height is somewhat disproportional to the featured fireplace, and draws the eyes upward. To anchor the featured fireplace, and to direct attention to the FP feature, my suggestion would be to provide symmetrical (twin) base and upper cabinets on both sides of the fireplace - reduce the mantle to a length inside the outside edges of the upper stone - (as possible) reduce the size of the hearth stone such that it only cants over the stone below 1 and 1/2" to 2" beyond the stone below and slightly less than the recommended base cabinets on each side. Not such a great example - but conceptually see Luxury Ranch Home:

I would maybe hang three pieces of coordinating art on the blank stone area above the little shelf. Then decorate the self with some personalized touches and a couple accents with colours from the rest of the room to tie everything in. Also, go on the photo part of houzz and type in tall fireplaces, it'll give some inspiration.

I like it just as it is -- nothing large on or above the mantel. Anything large above the mantel will make it look top-heavy.

Is hammering out old stone and replacing it with the Travertine difficult and/or expensive? We have the exact same fireplace as Megan and do not know what to do to spruce it up, i.e., have the stone and grout cleaned or stucco the whole fireplace or something else?

I think the main challenge here is that the hearth is too high. It looks like someone tried to make it a seating area, but it actually looks higher than that. This is one of the reasons the fireplace looks so disproportionately tall for the room.

What I would do is minimize the hearth as much as possible by eliminating the overhang and having it cut more flush with the stone. Or what would be even better would be to remove it and have something else laid there that is very close to the lighter colors of the stone.

Same thing with the mantle. Paint it a different color - if possible - more like the lighter hues in the stone.

I don't think I would put anything tall on that mantle as it will just emphasize the height. I know your palette, but not your style. I would say if possible try to balance the prominence of the fireplace by using some sort of sofa/console table on each side of the fireplace with a large mirror hung above each one. It will give you a look of symmetry, and balance the off center fireplace. The goal is to balance the height by addressing the width.

Also, move the track lighting to the wall parallel the fireplace. It looks out of place where it is.

Coordinating benches would look good tucked under the sofa/console tables and would provide additional seating if needed for company.

The proportions feel very off with the height, small opening and mantle, so I would add a much thicker barnwood mantle and rest some art on it to give upper portion some balance. You could also add a large screen in front of opening. The hearth is also very high and if you added a bench in front, it may help hide its height. It will also be important to select the right size furniture on either side.

They asked for help decorating the "fireplace" and yes some see things that are proportionately incorrect. Many times going off topic makes it even more daunting.

If you painted the beige walls a more contemporary color, perhaps a taupe shade that compliments the stone the fireplace would recede considerably. Once you have done that have a look at the mantle and paint it a color that complements the wall color and the stone. Paint is the most economical way to completely alter the look and feel of a room. Use photos in Houzz to get ideas for color by typing in stone fireplaces.

@ekinteriors, I think the term decorating can be more than suggesting an item for above the mantle (that alone can be daunting after hearing everyones' tastes). Before art is purchased for example, it's important to consider scale and balance and if not brought up, the person may not have recognized why it feels off - which they can dismiss if they choose to.

The height of the hearth and the height of the stone will all become less of an issue when the furniture is in place.

Draw the focus down to the living space with your furniture and art.

We had a fp very similar to yours in the house we just completed a reno in. It IS very expensive to tear out stone- we got a quote that was $10,000 to take out the whole fp!

I like Joann7's comments- adding matching tables on either side with pull-out seating below will make the eye look sideways instead of up & up. Add a tall lamp on each of the side consoles, or add sconces- something to stop the eye. We love James Mattson's copperwork sconces, which look beautiful with the stone on our fp, and our entry chandelier on the opposite wall is also one of his beautiful creations, but doesn't match exactly.

We are going to use a quilt to hang over the fireplace, so I can change it out with the seasons, and make it fit proportionally- that's the hard part about finding art. (A rug or other fiber art would look nice depending on your style.) I felt a mirror was too shiny for our rustically elegant Craftsman, but bought one anyway, and was right- it does not look good on the stone, especially being so high. A series of art pieces would look good above- 3 rectangular pictures, wider than tall and not too busy since it has to compete with the stone. Just remember to go big and somewhat bold with whatever you use- and usually bigger than you think for anything above the fp to be in proportion. Make sure the store will take something you buy back in case it just doesn't look right.

I plan to add something a bit tall on just one side of the hearth- such as a vase with branches since we like nature so much, and asymmetry too. I am searching for pottery in a golden brown that is tall and slender, but has a wider bottom to ground it. I may just use other shorter pots that pick up the stone colors at the bottom of the tall vase. The right side would be good for your situation to balance the lowered wall on left.

The box stores have black fireplace doors that look pretty decent, or you could go more expensive to draw the eye to that part of the fp. I think that would help to make your fp look more 'finished.'

If you want to make some changes, rather than just decorating the fp, there are some things that you could do in stages if desired, and they are definitely not very expensive.

We personally were overwhelmed by all the stone on our fp- you see the fp right when you walk in, and no one noticed the wood ceiling or beams because the fp was so imposing. Some mortar needed repair (stone easily fell off and it was only about 15 yrs old), so we had the top boxed in with sheetrock to help hold in the stone if it comes loose, and bumped out about 3" to be a design statement. (Our mantle was not very deep.) We painted it the same color as the walls- SW 7036 Accessible Beige, which picked up the stone color nicely. (I would have liked to go darker on paint but our tongue-and-groove ceiling turned out much darker than planned so had to lighten up.) I may paint the bump out just a shade or two darker as it is pretty subtle (so doesn't show up in a photo), but it does make nice shadows, especially with the sconces on the side.

We had the mantle boxed in with walnut to match the accent border we added to our oak floor because we thought the mantle needed to be thicker. We made it crisp and simple- just a box with simple beveled trim at top and bottom to match our Craftsman window trim. I would cut the sides of your mantle before boxing- it is really too wide for the fp unless you add shelving on each side to meet it. Shelving is a problem though because you have the lower ceiling on just one side- how to make look 'even'?

The hearth is a challenge- it is really high, and the wood on top is not in proportion. You could box in the top of the hearth too- go no more than 1/3 of the way down with your wood and trim to match the mantle, and it will look more intentional. You could also cut down the hearth wood overhang, like another poster suggested, to not much more than the width of the hearth, and then put a piece of wood trim under or around it to make it look a bit more beefy. That would be a pretty easy and inexpensive fix.

I like that you are using gold with the navy- the blue in our stone looks great with navy and slate blue. We found a leather sofa and chair that are a brown/butternut- really picks up the golden stone colors. (Not normally a color I would choose but it is warm and inviting with the stone and wood.) We are going to use pillows that have the fp stone colors to make the room more cohesive, including slate blue and some golden browns. You don't want to just decorate the fireplace independently- it needs to carry the style and colors of the room for it to meld into your design, and you need to repeat the fp elements throughout the room as well. You don't want to be matchy-matchy, of course- as a smart lighting designer told me about the components in a room, "They don't have to be married but they do have to talk to each other."

Let us know what you decide!

get rid of the white walls & ceiling....if you don't....it will always looking like it is about the white walls...and the white sheet on the ceiling.....you have beautiful stone in the fireplace...find someone who has great taste in color.....you want 2 colors...one for the ceiling and one for the walls...the ceiling should be darker than walls... don't worry about what your furniture is....the walls and ceiling will frame your possessions....and then make it about your possessions...not the white walls.....when my designer ( w great sense of color) choose the colors...I would never have picked them)....now I know why he did it.....pm me.. if you want a pic BB

I also agree with the above comment that the room will look top-heavy if you go too large in scale on top of the mantel. To me it's because so much of the focus is upward on the wall of stone and the wall with track lights next to it, as well as that the window to the left of the fireplace looks either too big for the space or disproportionate somehow like it's too low to the floor. Can you replace it with a french door to echo the doorframe to the right of the fireplace? Also the mantel looks nice a nice quality wood but seems to be hung too high and bit too plain all by itself there. Can you lower it and/or replace it with something more substantial? I also like the idea of matching cabinets or bookcases on either side of the fireplace to make it part of a focal wall and bring more horizontal interest. If budget permits, I'd replace the carpet with wood flooring.

I love houzz....but u still need a plan and a budget. go to http://www.christopherlowell.com/ I learn more from this guy and my designer friend here in town . They made me look outside the box. I can't remember the 7 steps of good planning from Christopher...but walls, ceiling, flooring, layout are in the top 5 and always do them in his order, not yours.......I love to buy the lamps before I do the project...that is why they are all sitting in the closet unused because they did not fit the final project. Check out his website and make a plan...it will save u money in the long run. And don't be afraid of paint...get out of builder's colors.. ( this info is being supplied by my wife ...who taught me to step out of the box too)

your color scheme sounds great but i would lose the carpet and have a dark wood floor - that would do it for me!

Remove all of the stone and replace with sheetrock, install a traditional wood fireplace mantle and surround, painted white.

So happy for this discussion. My fireplace is very similar.

without reading any of the other comments and your detail lacking a lot of information I can not tell if you even like the stone work. If you don't then I would get a builder to box out the stone work and make it modern with clean lines and then you can add a mantel of any type that takes your fancy and maybe you can use your gold in a massive mirror above the fire place or your blue / gold as items on the mantel and in modern art work.

First of all, lovely fireplace! You might want to consider adding an artscreen or art work. Most of our clients would prefer an artscreen since it's more cost-efficient and you can change the display whenever you prefer.

Here in Minnesota we love fireplaces in any way, shape or form! I'm currently redecorating our living room used brick fireplace to extend the width. My husband cut two pieces of decorative 6" oak trim to continue the mantle line to the room corners on either side. He built up the bottom inside by an inch, bumping just the bottom out from the wall enough to run an electrical line to the center of the mantle. We're running the cord down the corner inside a wire concealer on to an outlet so we'll be able to operate a decorative light on the mantle. I have leftover brown River Rock paint from our bathroom that's going up under the trim to continue the color of the brick and presto, chango, make the fireplace appear wider (hope). We decided to take out the freestanding bookcases we've had there for years as I wanted a new lighter look. Wish I could post a photo but it's just in our imaginations so far!

Not sure how far you want to take it, but I would (as others suggested) get rid of the black fireplace door which emphasizes the smallness. I would add bookcases on both sides of the fireplace up to the height of the mantel and then extend the mantel (leave the existing mantel for support and slide a hollow mantel over top) over both the fireplace and bookcases which will help balance the look of the tall fireplace. Add an interesting single piece of art above FP and draw attention to it by shining one of the lights off your track light on it. On the right hand side where there is more mantel to ceiling space add a series of vases starting with a very tall on nearest the stone and stagger downward. This plays off the angles of the ceiling on the other side. Fill bookcases with books and maybe some blue and white pottery.

Just noticed that the furniture will be cream- you might want to paint the walls a bit darker then so the furniture stands out more.

Putting a mirror above the fireplace will really brighten up the space and bring more light into the room.

I would replace or paint or stain the window trim and baseboards a darker color to add a little balance, maybe close to the color of the mantel, or the carpet color if you don't want them to really stand out. They just seem to disappear and the fireplace takes over.

I also would paint the fireplace wall a few shades darker than the cream furniture, but still lighter than the carpet (and the trim should be darker than the wall color you choose). Slightly darker paint on that wall will bring down the soaring height but still show the interesting roof angle if you leave that colored as it is now. A tall and colorful art piece or wall hanging high to the right of the fireplace, with a desk under it (and a nice table lamp), and a medium sized piece of art on the left, centered between the window and the fireplace - those would be my quick and inexpensive fixes.

Yes, the hearth is high, but it's fine - aside from the fire tools and a nice wood holder, don't put anything on it. Keep the mantel clutter-free as well, one nice framed print or photo leaned against the wall is all you need. Knick-knacks will only compete with the rock.

The fireplace is intended to be a feature of the room, altering it will just look like you don't like the feature...

I like the high hearth. Would paint the woodwork dark grey and then hang a textile over the top part of the mantle. Would love to instead make the fireplace opening larger and replace the rock with a bright tile all the way to the ceiling, but well, we don't all have money growing on trees :)

Navy and gold? Beautiful and classic! I would drywall over the fireplace stones, all the way to the ceiling. Remove the step altogether and have a flat front. Good luck, nice house.

Think BIG, HIGH.

Large ART

Large Mirror

Big Vases

Just a fun photo of some pics we shot on a mantle in a friend's home.

Please note that the home was under renovation at the time, hence the unfinished parts at the base of the fireplace.

For an Art Screen: Move 'n Art has streaming. www.movenart.com. Lots to choose from.

Hi! You certainly have more than enough ideas above...but what are a few more, right?

First of all, for safety reasons and to meet the building code of all countries...by law you must have a surround of stone or tile to several feet. Sparks could ignite your carpet.

Speaking of which; I would remove the carpeting entirely from the room. Wall to wall is out. Lovely, wooden floors are in. Wood is natural and would enhance your natural, stone fireplace.

I would think of your handsome, country style fireplace as a shape with colour and texture rather than 'a fireplace'. It is a huge, heavy visual 'weight' in the room. The little lights at the side really make the stone's texture stand out beautifully. However, I would put the lights above it shining down.

I would also pick up on the palest colour of beige in the stone and have custom built-in cabinets on either side of the fireplace that will have a balancing effect. Sanding and restaining the wooden shelves and 'bench' to match each other in a stain that matches the lightest stone would lighten things up. You could even extend the 'bench' across the bottom of the fireplace on both sides of the built in wall unit to make it 'marry' with the built ins. Because the fireplace is made of large rocks...unlike some finer stones used today, my belief is that any adjacent decoration or built ins etc...must not be delicate; they must balance the strong presence of the fireplace and therefore be made of a heavier wood...but still the warm stone beige in colour.

If you find the fireplace too overpowering, you could have it partially plastered over having the upper part light like the walls and put a large round mirror as suggested above or a boar's head!! lol...just kidding! Something fairly substantial is the idea. Keep the furniture large but preferably light coloured. Here are ideas in pictures:

https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=Stone%20fireplaces

[https://www.houzz.com/photos/divine-kitchens-llc-traditional-family-room-boston-phvw-vp~66946[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/divine-kitchens-llc-traditional-family-room-boston-phvw-vp~66946)

Good luck!

I am a Master Wood Carver and can carve just about anything. I specialize in deep relief carving, Maritime Art, Nature, Wildlife, Waterfowl, Wood Sculpture, or can work with you to design something special for your home. I also make artistic furniture. Here is my website: www.northernmichiganartist.webs.com and my email: pointershilts@hotmil.com Here are a few of my works. I was commissioned to do the following 2 Carvings of my artist's depiction of the Edmund Fitzgerald in celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Launching. The First is on her maiden voyage titled: "Fare Thee Well" and the Second is my depiction of her final voyage before the sinking, titled "Farewell" They are both available for purchase and I have others ready as well. I have many other pictures of works completed that I can send you that are not on my website. You can also see works on Facebook MasterCarver and Maritime Artist Patrick B. Pointer

I also caver Fireplace Billows.

This last one is framed like the first two, but difficult to show the detail in a photograph. This is called: "Friends Good Will" Chekagau Bound (Chicago Bound) It is departing the Port at Mackinaw Island, Michigan with Fort Mackinac in the background in 1812.