Ways to customize a fireplace in your home

Although the idea of a fireplace is the same in most homes - a square opening for fire with a mantle surrounding it - fireplaces can be different in any room and by adding in your personality to the styling of the fireplace, it’s easy to make a fireplace the center point of any area. Using different trends to decorate the space can allow you to make it fancy, rustic, eclectic, romantic or even modern. When you think outside the box for your Colorado Springs custom home, you’ll be pleased with some of the ideas you’ll come up with.

Modernize Your Mantle

One of the easiest ways to spruce up what one would think of as a typical fireplace is to think of a traditional fireplace and switch up it’s accessories. Fireplaces tend to be built with bricks or have surrounding crown molding mantles and although both of these finishes are beautiful, they might not stand out the way you’d like.

If you love brick fireplaces but don’t want to have a boring spot to warm up, change the shape of the place. Have your custom home builder design a round brick fireplace or make the fireplace centered in the middle of the room without a wall surrounding it. This keeps the space open but the fireplace is still a warmer for the dining and living areas. Paint the traditional brick a new color to give the older look new life. Brick is a beautiful, traditional building material, but there’s no reason you can’t make it your own.

Crown molding is typically used for a mantle around a fireplace, but sometimes it just doesn’t match the rest of the decorations of a person’s home - especially when you’re aiming for an eclectic or modern feel. Think of other ideas to surround your fireplace. Use refurbished wood as a stand alone mantle above the fire opening. Have a custom metal or iron gate made to give your traditional fireplace a twist. If you’re really in love with the idea of a fireplace being the center point of a room, make the fireplace larger than life or have the mantle and decorations surrounding it take up the entire wall. If you want the fireplace to be the focal point, you have to use the accessories of it to go along with the design.

Fireplace Fillers

Sometimes, the idea of a warm cozy fire sounds better than the actual maintenance of a real fireplace. If you don’t like gas fireplaces but also know you won’t build a wood fire, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a fireplace built into your custom home. The fireplace could increase the value of the house and the beauty of a room, but you don’t have to use if for fires. Decorate the fireplace by adding in a fireplace filler to make the space functional despite the lack of heating.

Keep it green

You might not be burning wood in your fireplace but you can still put wood in the fire area. Fill the space with beautiful logs or put a plant in the space to add a pop of color and energy to the room. If it’s a wide fireplace you can even place multiple potted plants along the inside and during the holidays you can place garland or holly inside to create a festive look.

Use it, don’t lose it

It’s easy to lose storage space when building a custom house because you don’t want to sacrifice living space for a closet that may not get used. With a fireplace, you can use the open firebox to store things in a stylish way. With a wood box you can create a rustic look or with delicate wicker containers you can create a more chic area. The possibilities are endless - you can even store books in the space by lining them through the firebox.

Light a candle, not a fire

Fires are difficult to deal with and sometimes can make your house and belongings smell like you’ve been camping. Instead of building a real fire, line the firebox with candles and create a romantic, elegant glow. Use different sized candles to create the illusion of fire and switch out the color of the candles to match the holiday season. You can even use battery operated candles if you’re worried about leaving the candles lit for too long and starting an unintentional fire.

Fill it with art

Sometimes there are beautiful pieces of artwork that would bring an entire room together, but you’re not sure where to set the sculpture or pottery to be a centerpiece. When that’s the case, don’t fret - the fireplace AND the artwork can combine to make a sophisticated focal point in the room. Place the pottery in the middle of the firebox and keep it simple with a few tea lights around it or some candles on the mantle. With a beautiful piece of art, too many accessories will take away from the main presentation.

Brighten with color

Most times when you choose a color scheme for a room in your home, neutral colors are the base color and then an accent color brings in brightness. By utilizing the fireplace as a spot in the room to show the accent colors, it again, brings a central focus into the room and makes an appropriate area to use the color. Place pretty accent-colored bottles or candles in the firebox, or paint the mantle surrounding the fireplace. It’s easy to start to overuse the accent colors in a room as you try to incorporate them into the overall color scheme, so sticking to brightening the fireplace and having a few other accent pieces throughout the room is a good plan.

Whether your fireplace is going to keep your family warm, or keep your room stylish, there are plenty of ways for your Colorado Springs custom home builder to incorporate a beautiful fireplace into your home design.