Happy New Year and Welcome back!
If one of your 2020 goals is to renovate or remodel your MCM home and you want to either add a fireplace or update an existing one, then this blog is for you.
Let’s start by talking about why a fireplace is important in interior design. As you know a fireplace is considered as a focal point and what this means is an area where your eye is drawn to or the first area that you see as you come into a room. Most of the MCM homes have fireplaces either in the living rooms or one dividing the living and dining room areas.
That being said you need to decide if you want your fireplace to be incorporated in the wall, if you want it relatively minimal or if you want an old-fashioned free-standing one. And if you already have one how much do you want to modernize it?
One thing to note is that with a freestanding one you have to consider the wall behind it, the floor under it and how are you going to vent it. Most examples I have seen have either tile or stone under and behind a free-standing unit like the Preway. Now when you consider what to do with the venting ducts, you can either take it directly out through the wall behind it or make a flue inside of the wall and vent it upwards towards the roof.
When you are doing a structural renovation you can always think about adding materials
Now here are a few ideas on how to make your fireplace more attractive and unusual to suit your style:
1. Add black iron trimmed with copper to the top to give it an interesting but clean look.
2. If you have a fireplace in a very large wall, add diagonal wood paneling or shiplap over the entire wall to make the entire wall a focal point. This option I consider to be timeless modern, as it can be incorporated into any modern home and it would not look dated.
3. If your fireplace is dividing 2 rooms and it will be seen from both sides equally you can do wood panel vertically applied on the top and the bottom could be travertine, porcelain, soapstone or marble. You can either take it to the floor or elevate it to be at eye level with people sitting on either side. This look is timeless and very elegant.
4. This is a great idea if you want to add a semi free-standing one you can build a type of scaffolding frame. It is airy, unusual and a great solution for displaying your firewood and collectibles as well.
5. For a free-standing one create a canopy effect with rosewood paneling over, behind and under it.
6. Add mirrors to the entire wall, I particularly recommend this if you have a small living room and you need the illusion of more space and more light. Of course, the fireplace surround would need to be a fire-resistant material like porcelain, travertine or soapstone.
7. And finally one of the cleanest ways to have a fireplace is to have no trim or any kind of texture on the wall it is on. If you like to blend MCM with other styles this would be one of the easiest ways to incorporate and update your fireplace.
Now if it is not in your plans to do any major construction you can always do the following ;
8. Paint your brick either blue, grey or brown, it creates a nice focal point and it doesn’t follow what everyone is doing which is painting it white to blend it into a farmhouse style.
9. If you are renting or don’t want to add something permanent buy a free-standing fireplace and add candles, flowers, logs, etc to make it cozier. You can get this kind at antique places. As a matter of fact, I have one that will be available for sale soon.
10. Or how about this other option? Add drywall in the middle of the brick pattern to clean it up a bit and update it without too much construction.
If you enjoyed this blog please share it with your friends. And feel free to share pictures, ideas or anything else with us via email or on social media.
Cheers to the new year and new goals!
Grethel
