What to put in fake fireplace?

[KhaleesiOfChaos]

I live in a rented Victorian terrace which has chimney breasts but the actual fireplaces have been blocked off.

To add some character back without making any permanent changes, I've got some fire surrounds which look lovely but a bit silly with nothing in them except a bit of skirting board at the bottom!

Can you suggest any ideas? Anything I've seen on Pinterest is for actual fireplaces not blank walls.

The photo is of my bedroom and have got the same scenario in my dining room (which is a whole other decor problem as it's a walk-through room!).

I have a totally fake 3D fireplace, in which I have an orange light under a fibreglass fake wood inset from a 60s electric fire, because I wanted a warm glow.
Recently, I have seen a better way of doing fake glowing embers with LED lights and spray foam, so I will be changing it soon.
You might be able to have a more 2D version of this, but you would need to remove or cover that bit of skirting board and maybe add a fake hearth.

Really you need to get rid of the skirting but as you are in rented that probably is not possible, to disguise it a bit you could paint the skirting same colour as the wall, you need to add a hearth, you could probably get one that just sits on the floor rather than fixed, I would then add a basket of logs that hides the skirting as much as possible, or a wicker basket version with a fire screen, the pictures I have attached should give you some idea, the main thing to make it work is hiding the skirting.

Watching this as I have the same thing!

You could paint the back wall in black/off black to make it stand out less.
I would probably paint the surround dark too.
And a fire screen in front is a nice idea, or some micro led fairy lights?

I’d probably set an electric flame fire in it as I like a winter glow.

There’s some ideas here

I like numbers 5, 8 and 10. Number 8 probably involves building the mantel out away from the wall a bit so you can make a recess inside, so depends how your DIY skills are. I think I like 5 best, just needs a piece of distressed mirror with a white painted border round it.

How much of a budget do you have?

Can you get a bit of mdf the size of the surround, paint it black at the bottom to look like an empty fireplace, and either paint or buy stick on fake tiles to go round the rest?

(You’d need to unscrew the fireplace surround from the wall in order to fit it)

If you can afford, get another bit of mdf the width of the surround to use as the hearth and again stick on fake tiles or paint it to look like tiles. Or marble if you prefer.

If there’s little budget, if you have an old piece of fabric you could pin it to the back of the fire surround to cover the whole back area and get a bit of black cardboard and glue it on to represent the fireplace. Put stuff in front to hide it a bit. Like a log basket. With fairy lights.

Or you could cut wood so it’s small flat circles like coasters and staple or glue to the fabric/mdf so it looks like stacked wood. Weave fairy lights in between the chunks of wood.

@minipie Thank you - there are loads of ideas in that blog article.

It makes sense to make the fireplace space dark as a couple of posters have suggested so I think I'll try that with some LED candles or something in front of it.

Trying to create a little sanctuary but DS4 will want to investigate all the new things so real candles or anything too fiddly is out!

@Elieza oooh fake tiles around the edge will really make it seem more authentic, thanks, that's a great idea!

You could even try lino in an appropriate print too. Like a marble or tiles print.

Perhaps an off cut would be advertised in the freebie websites? You wouldn’t need much.

How about a biofuel fire? It's a real flame but as the by-product is only a small amount of water vapour, you don't need a chimney or a flue