Ideas please

[Clarinet53]

This is my fire place and I'm after some ideas how I can make more of it.

Love an open fire but haven't used it for the last couple of years.

I would:
Clean the soot of the mantle. If it won’t scrub off (is it burnt?) then replace it. It doesn’t look to be the right size somehow. It looks like there’s smoke damage on the wall above the mantle? If that’s the case then you should get the chimney sorted and have the mantle sealed in to the wall properly, or just don’t use the fire. A bit of smoke in the room is to be expected if the fire is used lots, but that doesn’t look right in the pic.

At the moment it looks like a square gap in the wall with the base full of clutter, almost like you’re hiding it ever having been a fireplace.

Put either candles (tall but a mix of sizes) into the fire place, or a group of houseplants. If you love the skulls you could try arranging them in the middle but with something to give them height (can you make a raised plinth for some of them?). Either way it should be one reasonably tall central “cluster” with the rest left clear of clutter.

You could try getting battery-powered stick-on halogen spots, tuck them out of sight in the chimney so they work as mini-spotlights. These might look naff though...and you’d have to be sure to remove them before you lit the fire!!!!