Decorating around a black fireplace

[Tootsiroll]

I'm having trouble coming up with ideas on how to set up and decorate our front room.

The main issue is the conking, great big, black marble fireplace that really dominates the room. While it is quite handsome and we aren't planning to remove it, we're having issues coming up with ideas on how to decorate around it. The only thing that isn't a hindrance is we have no furniture yet so we have freedom of choice when it comes to colours and designs.

I can only think of white walls and furniture which really isn't what I wanted. I want a room that's warm and cosy but I can't think of a colour scheme to match the black marble.

Any ideas?

Can you add a photo?

I take it you wouldn't consider painting it a colour you'd prefer?

I think itvis probably great and would leave it be adventurous with colour look at DeVol, farrow & Ball and Little Greene on Insta for inspiration and go with chalkier colours in the surrounding walls

Oh my gosh, don’t paint the marble 😅. White walls will be too stark a contrast to the black and make it feel even more dominating. Choose any neutral colour, F&B for example have so many. the darker you go with the walls, the more integrated it will feel I think. I’m jealous of your black marble fireplace!

A sage green would be lovely in a matt finish. You could chose a more neutral colour furniture with cushions in greens and blues.

https://antique-fireplace.com/product/antique-black-and-red-marble-fireplace/

I'm stuck in a hotel room in Birmingham so I can't send an actual picture but the above link is near as identical to mine.

I think a type of soft duck egg blue/green colour would soften it. Or one of Little Greene's neutral colour - Portland Stone or similar.

I put a wallpaper on the wall behind the fireplace with a bit of black, grey etc in it so the fireplace is not so in your face

What's your style? Boho? Clean lines?
I like this but I would add gold pots and gold cushions

share.google/3cV44j4nbzmuggYcI

I put some images into Chat GPT and it gave green walls and dark brown furniture, I'm not hating it.

Bit grand but it's not bad.

I think thats a bit dark

I prefer this green

Ah, now we're getting somewhere. I do like green but that lighter shade looks much better.

Now if I can just find that exact shade, the furniture and that rug I'll be sorted.

My fireplace is very similar and until recently the walls were painted Farrow & Ball's Breakfast Room Green which I loved and lived with for 20 years. The green somehow balanced the black and red.
I've had a good look and can't find any photographs sorry.

Looks like dulux Willow Tree that pale green. I have it in my kitchen it’s lovely and bright.

White walls wouldn't look right imo - that's definitely not the only option @Tootsiroll.

We've had three Victorian houses with similar marble fireplaces in the past -

The first (our FTB house) had two black marble fireplaces in interconnected rooms with a wall of floor-to-ceiling original timber bifold doors separating them. We painted the walls a dusky pink and all the joinery a light blue. Our sofas were a pale grey-blue, we had blue floral blinds and pink Chinese rugs (hideous now I think about it!)

In our next house we actually replaced an ugly 1930s tiled fireplace with a reclaimed black marble one, more appropriate to the house which was 1890s. We gave the removed one to our heating guy who had a thirties house. It was a large 'through lounge' type living room with seating - and windows - at both ends as we had a separate dining room elsewhere in the house. We were more adventurous by now and painted the walls a dark burgundy (I painted the joinery with one of those two part faux wood stains you could get - took me forever, lol!). Our sofas were a deep green (Tetrad Alicia with loose covers - we had a spare set in red...wish we'd kept those sofas!) and I made curtains in a Liberty stripe that incorporated burgundy, blue, green and mustard yellow. We stripped/stained the floor and had two old Persian rugs.

Our last Victorian house had a white marble fireplace in the back room (living) and a black one in the front (dining). We chose F&B Oval Room Blue walls for the dining room, on which I hand-painted a gothick/gothic revival style border immediately below the dado. We had a red geometric patterned fitted carpet(!), burgundy curtains with blue roman blinds and lots of antique furniture including a huge carved French buffet.

How about something like these tiles, they would pick up the other colour in the fireplace