nonworking fireplace aesthetic help!?

[PMG]

Update:

Best option is to remove it completely and drywall it over. That's not something we're able to do right now, so we're settling for painting brick to match the wall and mantle to match trim.

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What should I do?

Check out the photo of my living room below, as we have it today, and as it was when we bought the house.

What should I do with the fireplace and mantle?

We are likely going to work on this tomorrow.

There are a lot of pieces to the project.

The fireplace cover is glass (with fabric glued in it?!). I’ve been concerned that we’ll break the glass with the sofa back bumping it as it often does.  I think we’re going to remove it completely and paint the inside of the fireplace and install a shelf or two.  We’ll use it to store games and kid toys that we rotate. It would be inconvenient storage, but why not?

Usually the sofa is centered on the fireplace, but I moved it when we added the cardboard house, and it might stay like this for a good while.  I know the fireplace is often the focal point of the room, but this layout, with the sofa against it works really well for us. 

You see the blotches on the fireplace where I filled in the screw holes where the TV used to be mounted.  The chimney is knocked down below the roof line. We considered installing a gas fireplace, but it’s expensive and inconvenient here. A future owner might, but it’s quite unlikely this fireplace will hold any kind of fire again.  It is quite weatherproof. We never feel a draft from it, and we would as we’ve spent enough nights sleeping on the sofa when the baby was little.

I think we want to de-emphasize the fireplace. I have half a gallon of the wall paint. I’ll prime first with a good primer, and then paint that sucker to blend in. Brother says I should go white, and not wall color, but a bird in hand… What do y'all say?

All the trim in the house is white. The chifforobe and bookshelf (hidden by the cardboard house now) are white. I may get rid of the chifforobe one day, it is a big piece of furniture in a little room, but we use it heavily, so it will likely stay.

But what about the mantle?

I imagine we’ll keep using it, and keep the art above it. (Unless I should change that!? But that seems to fit well.) If you can’t tell from the photo the mantle is wood and it is painted with a very streaky glossy black. It is not a whole piece of wood or anythings special, except for being especially ugly. What do I do with it? Do I paint it to match the wall? Surely not?! Do I add an additional layer of wood to it, stain a warm color? That seems like a pain and would actually make it a tad bigger.

I would take suggestions on lights to  The can light thingies just got put there by accident when we moved in, and they are still there. It would be nice to have light either intentionally on the art, or more directed to the sofa for reading. 

In all that rambling I've got four separate pieces:
1. brick fireplace repaint
2. Mantle refresh
3. inside fireplace shelves
4. lighting

What should I do?!?

TLDR:

I want to deemphasize this nonworking fireplace. What color should I paint it and the poorly painted wood mantle?

[Sibley]

I am not an interior designer at all. However, you do have the option of removing the fireplace entirely. Or at least enough to be able to drywall over it. So that is an option. The floor would be an issue with that plan, ie different floor.

Otherwise, I'd paint the brick to match the walls, paint the mantle to match the trim, and replace the glass insert with something but I can't think what. Sorry.

[RWTL]

If you don't want that to be the focal point, I agree with @Sibley that you could frame it out and drywall it.

What about flipping the room so that the TV was there?  You could frame still drywall it, but then create your own type of wood bookcase/TV cabinet that looked like it belonged there....Something like this....

https://crownlivin.com.my/product/cwtv-02-calis-mix-match-tv-wall-cabinet-with-multiple-wall-panels-w2400-d410-h2340mm/

[Josiecat22222]

I would remove the glass doors and the mantle and brick the whole thing in and paint it the same color as the wall; basically make it an accent wall.  That said, is it nonfunctional permanently or does it just need a new fire box?  If you think that either you or a future owner may want to make it functional again, then maybe not brick it in.

[Fru-Gal]

I personally LOVE a fireplace. Mine was working when we bought the house but fires in them are now illegal in our town, plus the usual problems with a 100-year-old fireplace. What I did was thoroughly clean it out and then put a fake electric flame light in it. It’s on a timer and the flickering flames over the log are my favorite thing ever!!! Some have an infrared heater function as well which might be nice. I got one with a blower heater but never use the heater part of it because it’s ineffective. Look up Duraflame electric fireplace log set.

[Freedomin5]

I would remove the glass, paint the fireplace white, and bring it up to the ceiling. Like the picture below.

A quick Google search will give you lots of ideas to decorate nonworking fireplaces. For example, you could bunch up strings of fairy lights around a few birch logs for fun mood lighting, or put in several electric (or real) pillar candles.

I don’t really know how the other side of your room looks like, but I would probably rearrange the furniture so that it doesn’t look like you placed the furniture all in a row against the wall.

[Metalcat]

I personally hate non-working fireplaces, so I would remove it.

I would DEFINITELY remove it if you're just planning to put a sofa in front of it, that would personally drive ma absolutely nuts.

[bill1827]

As it can't be made into a working fireplace (no chimney) I would remove it.

It's singularly ugly and having an unobstructed wall lets you put whatever you want there.

[iris lily]

First thing – why is it not working? Is there actually a chimney there? Could a future owner use a fireplace in someway, turning it into a gas fireplace? That’s what we did with our fireplace because gas is just easier for us, and the chimney didn’t draw all that well anyway.

Usually I am adamantly against painting masonry, but your bricks are already painted so Lean into it. I like freedom and fives ideas but so much of it depends on the rest of your room.

In today’s living rooms the TV is usually treated as the focal point rather than a fireplace.

[PMG]

Ding ding ding. We have a winner. Removing it is the most obvious and best option. I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. It is a project that is probably within our DIY skillset as well. 

However. We won’t be removing it, at least not at this time. This is a project that has to fit into a few scattered kid nap-time hours, and it’s in the main room of our house. Perhaps when the kid is older we can tackle it.  It would definitely improve the space. Matching the tile would be difficult (so would not destroying more tile during tear down), but we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.

So we’re just going to half-ass this fireplace but make it easier to live with. We’re going to prime it all and get a feel for it white. Then we’ll likely go for painting the brick the wall color and the mantle the trim color unless we love it all white. We intend to remove the cover and put a shelf and cat bed inside it, and put that dang sofa right back in front of it. This is almost free as we have all of the supplies on hand except perhaps a few tap cons.

I knew I’d get comments on having the furniture all along the wall. Without showing you the whole layout, it just works well that way.  It’s a small house. 700 some square feet.  The living room is the largest room at roughly 11 x14 feet.  The kitchen, hall and front door open into it. Furniture along the wall gives us the largest traffic and play space and just works well, so we’ll keep it. We tried different arrangements over the years but when we made this arrangement we both just… rested. It feels good.

We did consider gas logs but gas is inconvenient and expensive here so we decided against it. I also went down a rabbit hole looking at pellet stoves and Scandinavian wood stoves and we let that go, too. A future owner could want something different, but we’re here now.  It’s already painted so we’re not making it any worse by painting again.

Shew. Thanks y’all. I know what’s best, and I’m ok with settling for good enough for now.

[Metalcat]

Ding ding ding. We have a winner. Removing it is the most obvious and best option. I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. It is a project that is probably within our DIY skillset as well. 

However. We won’t be removing it, at least not at this time. This is a project that has to fit into a few scattered kid nap-time hours, and it’s in the main room of our house. Perhaps when the kid is older we can tackle it.  It would definitely improve the space. Matching the tile would be difficult (so would not destroying more tile during tear down), but we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.

So we’re just going to half-ass this fireplace but make it easier to live with. We’re going to prime it all and get a feel for it white. Then we’ll likely go for painting the brick the wall color and the mantle the trim color unless we love it all white. We intend to remove the cover and put a shelf and cat bed inside it, and put that dang sofa right back in front of it. This is almost free as we have all of the supplies on hand except perhaps a few tap cons.

I knew I’d get comments on having the furniture all along the wall. Without showing you the whole layout, it just works well that way.  It’s a small house. 700 some square feet.  The living room is the largest room at roughly 11 x14 feet.  The kitchen, hall and front door open into it. Furniture along the wall gives us the largest traffic and play space and just works well, so we’ll keep it. We tried different arrangements over the years but when we made this arrangement we both just… rested. It feels good.

We did consider gas logs but gas is inconvenient and expensive here so we decided against it. I also went down a rabbit hole looking at pellet stoves and Scandinavian wood stoves and we let that go, too. A future owner could want something different, but we’re here now.  It’s already painted so we’re not making it any worse by painting again.

Shew. Thanks y’all. I know what’s best, and I’m ok with settling for good enough for now.

Makes sense. I figured if you were doing something as whacky as putting a sofa in front of it that that really must be the best arrangement for your room, no sane person would do that unless every other option was truly functionally worse.

I completely understand just making it less obtrusive for now until you can tackle the rather unpleasant job of getting rid of it.

Good luck with the priming and painting. I've had great luck with Stix primer, that stuff is amazing.

[roomtempmayo]

If this is in a cold climate, I'd also take a roll of fiberglass insulation and go to town on the chimney.  An open chimney is constantly pulling the warm air from your interior and sending it outdoors, which not only costs you money, it also increases cold drafts.

[WayDownSouth]

If this is in a cold climate, I'd also take a roll of fiberglass insulation and go to town on the chimney.  An open chimney is constantly pulling the warm air from your interior and sending it outdoors, which not only costs you money, it also increases cold drafts.

I would think creatively about it.

• You could use it to create a wine cellar or some sort of cool display box. Put a couple shelves inside made from old barn wood (cheap or free possibly) and load it up with something interesting.
• Make it into an aquarium.
• Create an indoor mini plant garden with the proper type of foliage for the space.
• Fill it up with clean white or black sand and throw some sea shells and a piece of driftwood in it with a message in a bottle.

All cooler than removing it IMO, but it's your house not mine.

[Metalcat]

If this is in a cold climate, I'd also take a roll of fiberglass insulation and go to town on the chimney.  An open chimney is constantly pulling the warm air from your interior and sending it outdoors, which not only costs you money, it also increases cold drafts.

I would think creatively about it.

• You could use it to create a wine cellar or some sort of cool display box. Put a couple shelves inside made from old barn wood (cheap or free possibly) and load it up with something interesting.
• Make it into an aquarium.
• Create an indoor mini plant garden with the proper type of foliage for the space.
• Fill it up with clean white or black sand and throw some sea shells and a piece of driftwood in it with a message in a bottle.

All cooler than removing it IMO, but it's your house not mine.

OP has already established that where the non-working fireplace is is the only reasonable place for the sofa to go. So even if they wanted to do something visual with it, it would just be covered by the couch.

[Omy]

A super simple improvement would be to remove everything from the mantel and the wall above the mantel...and to adjust furnishings next to the couch so you can center the couch on the fireplace (move it several inches to the left). The cluster of items and the couch not being centered are making it feel "busy" to my eye.

A slightly more complicated fix would be to install a floor to ceiling drape that covers the fireplace (that you could center the couch on.)

[sonofsven]

If you remove it it looks like you'll have four floor tiles to replace. If you don't have a stash of them that might be difficult.
Also, is that on an outside wall? If so, insulate it well before you frame it and drywall it.
Other than that, removing the bricks should be fairly straightforward, but dusty. I would remove everything from the room when the time comes and put up plastic barriers to contain the dust.
Probably use a 2# sledge to tap the bricks out, starting at the top, after you remove the mantle in a similar fashion. If the mortar doesn't want to let loose try tapping the mortar lines with a cold chisel or pry bar. Some people might just stack all those bricks in the chimney and forget about them- give some future person the thrill of discovering an old fireplace!


You mentioned the idea of a woodstove. Just fyi for anyone else thinking along these lines, it's usually better, and easier, to use metal single and double wall pipe and all the proper ceiling/floor transitions and run it straight up through the roof rather than using an existing chimney. One reason is that you have much more flexibility in placement this way. Also, an old chimney is often in poor shape and will need to be pointed above the roof line, and it will need a liner installed. Most of these liners are flex pipe and I think that makes them more difficult to clean.
The best type of woodstove to place in an old firebox would be an insert; these have heavy metal panels around the stove to cover the gaps to the fireplace.

[WayDownSouth]

If this is in a cold climate, I'd also take a roll of fiberglass insulation and go to town on the chimney.  An open chimney is constantly pulling the warm air from your interior and sending it outdoors, which not only costs you money, it also increases cold drafts.

I would think creatively about it.

• You could use it to create a wine cellar or some sort of cool display box. Put a couple shelves inside made from old barn wood (cheap or free possibly) and load it up with something interesting.
• Make it into an aquarium.
• Create an indoor mini plant garden with the proper type of foliage for the space.
• Fill it up with clean white or black sand and throw some sea shells and a piece of driftwood in it with a message in a bottle.

All cooler than removing it IMO, but it's your house not mine.

OP has already established that where the non-working fireplace is is the only reasonable place for the sofa to go. So even if they wanted to do something visual with it, it would just be covered by the couch.

But do you REALLY need a sofa? I mean, come onnnnnnn.....

(I admit I failed to read that part)

[Fru-Gal]

But do you REALLY need a sofa? I mean, come onnnnnnn.....

I got rid of my sofa years ago, don't miss it at all. What a waste of money sofas are!!