Fireplace ! art or mirror

[Sarahjt66]

I cannot decide, I have brought a expensive electric wood burner to go in my chimney breast ( wanted as real looking as possible) and a beam on top, the feature wall in a light grey, and chimney not central 😕 my question is art or mirror ( quite a small living room ) I was looking at oak mirrors, now I’m thinking it will look to heavy, any one got any ideas, in the end I’m aiming for a modern slightly county/contemporary look, even though I live by the sea 😃 ps excuse mess, just in midst of decorating 😃

I have a chimney breast and wood burner in a space a bit like yours with an oak beam. My chimney breast is painted red and i have a beautiful oil painting above it. I love it. I am not fond of mirrors above a fireplace. I will go take a picture and let you see.

I’d go for a mirror especially if the room is a bit on the small side but not a wood frame I’d probably go for a silver frame but copper is lovely too

My style is sort of modern/country I guess.

I would always go for a mirror over a fireplace. When we didn’t have one for a while and had a picture instead it just felt wrong to me.

I'd always go mirror. It really increases the light in the room. I have an antiquey-looking gold one. The bigger the better as far as I'm concerned!

Thanks I would like to see that x

Thanks all,
back to looking at mirrors, I’m pleased it was mentioned not to go for wood as I thought it was just me, will look at others now 😃

My brother and sister in law have one of those big skeleton clocks above their fireplace and it looks lovely. They bought us one for Christmas and its in storage waiting to go up when our house renovation is finished. My OH is not sure about it going above our fireplace (reckons he does not want to be constantly reminded of the time when he is relaxing of an evening and watching the TV...hmmm)...but I am fairly sure that's where its going...….We have picture at the moment, which would look much better if bigger. For a more modern look I would get a really arty mirror but not sure about a more traditional look...think a picture might be better (or a clock :) )

Mirror here (excuse emptiness, wood burner and room decoration only just done - new carpet going in next week, so a bit empty!).

It's a really light room so I'd go for a picture rather than a mirror.

Whitney 168
The mirror above looks really nice, had looked at those put as usual was undecided, mine layout in just like yours only having wooden floor down, carpet and pets just don’t seem to go well together here in mine 😃

Ha, tell me about it - three large hairy dogs here, front room the only place downstairs that we have carpet, but husband won't give in to hard flooring in there.

Op I think something like this would look amazing above your fireplace...

www.nordichouse.co.uk/loft-style-window-mirror-6xab-p-2343.html

I think if you go for a mirror or a picture what you will have to be careful of is getting the size right. It is a small wall opening and a small beam. We had a similar issue when ours was opened up - it wasn't the size we had expected. We made it look bigger with the fire surround and by extending the opening with slate slips.

If you have too big a mirror or a picture it will create an overbalance above the beam. I would not have anything wider than the opening in the wall.

I’ve found this, which I thought was nice, anyone agree?

Personally, I wouldn't go for a round one. That nordic chic one is a good shape and very simple- depend how wide it is in comparison to your fireplace cavity. Portrait style mirror is a good idea.

Pottery barn mirror.
Or large industrial metal clock.