Empty fire surround - a stupid idea?

[starsandstuff]

We’re trying to get the last room in our house decorated, the front room, and I’m looking some advice. There’s a chimney breast but the previous owners look to have taken away the fireplace and plaster boarded it up, then had it wallpapered over. We painted the room a really dark colour and now it’s really obvious where the fireplace used to be as they didn’t do a great job so it sort of sticks out/isn’t flush (it wasn’t so noticeable with their wallpaper which was pale).

I don’t actually like the colour we picked so now I’m going to have it wallpapered again - DH is thrilled needless to say. And my new bright idea is to put in a fireplace surround only, to cover where the old one would have been. So not open the whole thing up again (gawd knows what’s involved in that plus we’ve new carpet down), so no hearth or inset, just the mantle basically.

DH is very unsure about this, but while I can picture it in my mind I have looked and looked and can’t find pics online of what I’m talking about. I’ve never had an original thought in my life so someone must have done this, I just can’t find them. So can you either lead me to photos of this very thing, maybe even in your own house, so I can show DH what I mean and how lovely it will be, or convince me that it will in fact look ridiculous? Thanks.

Unless you've got quite kooky, maximilist decor and you do this with absolute confidence, I suspect it will look quite ridiculous and you'll be forever explaining it to people when they ask about it. I'm pretty sure I've seen it before and it hasn't really worked.

If I were you, I'd open the fireplace up again, even if not to use as a fire (blocking up the chimney is a fairly easy thing to do. Although having an open fire or log burner, if this were possible, might come in handy in the energy crisis 😁). You can do so much more with that.

We have a set of shelves inside the mantlepiece/ fire surround, the fireplace and mantle came with the house but isn't open, there is no gas connection anymore and the chimney and fireplace are blocked up. The fireplace is really annoying despite it being on an alcove, and I am removing it as soon as possible. That said, it does look nice with the small shelving unit inside it!

Here are some pictures
id.pinterest.com/tiavirlana/unused-fireplace-ideas/
A deep one like this might work

@YahBooFucks Ha yeah, we can huddle around the fire kept ablaze by our massive gas bill 😂

@DinosaurOfFire Do you mind posting a pic of what you have?

I think it can look quite good and not necessarily need an eclectic vibe to pull
it off

@Howmanysleepsnow Thanks for that. None of those are exactly what I have in mind although there’s one that’s kind of similar (except for colour, styling etc). I showed it to DH and he said “it looks a bit shit.” 😄 So not quite there yet…

@HerRoyalNotness Thank. He said “it’s alright” to the first one so maybe getting somewhere!