Living room fireplace decision help

[Zana2222]

We are extending our living room and need to decide what to do with the fireplace area. Our alcove / tv units will stay as because they are quite new. But the wall feels too busy so we want to remove the existing fireplace. We could just plaster the wall but are considering putting a sleeker wall mounted rectangular electric fireplace in. Ideally we would keep the mirror. Would love some advice on the best thing to do with this space in the middle?

I think maybe the 2 units dominate over the fireplace. It's a wall with 2 or 3 focal points which makes it feel too full. There's nothing wrong with any of them, there's just too many.

If you're prepared to use a strong colour on the wall, I think painting the entire wall and the back panels of both units (or even the entire units) might help to unify it and bring focus back to the white, contrasting fireplace. I'd probably go more exciting than grey for the walls. If you don't want colour, maybe swap the mirror for a big, bold, brightly coloured blocky picture to really draw the eye to the centre. You could try this before you commit to anything expensive. I'm not sure swapping the fireplace for a smaller one will help - fireplaces are meant to be focal points. I'd be looking for visual tricks to help the fireplace be a stronger focus and the units less so.

F&B have eggshell in lots of interesting, "wall" type shades.

The fireplace is losing the battle partly because it's set back from the fronts of your units. A leftfield option might be to build in a chimney breast so that your units literally recede into alcoves. You'd also then have the option of painting or papering just the chimney breast to really draw the eye. Good luck with it.

That’s really useful advice, thanks. I will look into building a fake chimney breast then I could set a new fireplace into it

I’m not sure if your children would be too young but have a look at the new mini Everhot. You could have quite a plain fireplace and set it in. It is electric and you can bake in it. It would be hot so perhaps not suitable if you have young children.
I would try turning your mirror the other way as it might draw the eye to the centre more. Twoleftelbows suggested a painting there and that would work too. Have a look at art students or up and coming artists as their work will be refreshing and not too expensive.

If you have time I would take everything off your alcove shelves and rearrange things. I don’t mean there is anything wrong with the way things are but this is what I do when I want to change things. I don’t put everything back on my dresser but try a different combination. You could also look at Pinterest for inspiration. Make a page of ideas and then decide what they have in common as this is probably what you like and draws you to pin it.

We have a fireplace with no surround, just plaster and a large clock above it.

We have added in alcove cabinets and shelves on either side. We only have two shelves above the units as I wanted to put limited and large stuff on them to make it seem less cluttered. They still look cluttered! The wall and units are white.

I think the only way for me to make mine less cluttered is to get rid of the shelves above the cabinets and add a single large piece of art or plant on top of each cabinet and stick with a plastered wall and no surround.

I am not going to get rid of the shelves at the moment and hope the horrible clutter just has a bit more personality than before.

Remove most of the small objects and add a couple of big ones, group them and leave it as 50-80% empty space. The shelves are just too cluttered.

A round mirror would help break it up as well.

You have a lovely sloping ceiling but there is just a flat line running across the top of what is there now. Nothing to draw the eye upwards or break up the flatness of it.

Agree we have way too much clutter and have stuffed the cupboards full of toys. Ideally the books would move to another place. It’s hard to keep a minimal look with three children!

See I don"t think it is cluttered. It's a home, not a show home, and homes have books and toys.

I think @GOODCAT is onto something with the spacing of the shelves though. I think my eye is drawn to the wine rack shelves - my brain wants to make sense of why there are shelves so close together so high up. But, let's not all live in bland identical boxes.

Toys clutter can be put into naice baskets. I get the 1-2 quid ones from B and M or the Range!

the fireplace is nice. it is the wall units that don't work. They are too big and don't relate to the sloping ceiling in any way.

would you consider taking the shelves off the top of the units (just keep the cupboards) and get rid of the decorative moulding at the top of the units, so you just have plain wall above cupboard height. Then there would be more space for the TV on the right and you could have a smaller number of floating shelves (or some pictures) on the left.

@parietal

the fireplace is nice. it is the wall units that don't work. They are too big and don't relate to the sloping ceiling in any way.

would you consider taking the shelves off the top of the units (just keep the cupboards) and get rid of the decorative moulding at the top of the units, so you just have plain wall above cupboard height. Then there would be more space for the TV on the right and you could have a smaller number of floating shelves (or some pictures) on the left.

Agree with this. They're far too unwieldy for the space they're in.

What sort of fireplace is it? It's hard to tell from the photo as there is quite a lot of stuff on the hearth, but it looks like a modern fireplace that's been added quite recently?

I would never remove an original feature fireplace, but I don't think this is one. It doesn't really work well in the space, it's a bit 'lost' against the sloping ceiling and wall cupboards. I would be tempted to remove it entirely and fill in the space with more of the same units, moving the TV to the central area.

That would give you more cupboard space so you could hide away some of the clutter.

The fire place is the least of the issue and removing it isn’t going to solve the issue. I’m sorry,

The issue will remain which you’ve oversized big old units in there, that weren’t built for the space and don’t fit right.

A fake chimney breast would work, as the fireplace needs to be brought out. The units should be in recesses either side.

So as basically The units should fit in the recess either side of the chimney breast. As there isn’t one, the units just stand out, and the fireplace is the thing that’s recessed which makes it not look right and really cluttered. Plus a tv that’s just too big for the space.