The Living room is a place of gathering and comfort. One of the easiest ways to enhance that feeling is to install a beautiful fireplace focal point. Of course, when choosing one, there is a long list of choices to be made. First, what kind of fireplace do you even get? Second, what are some fireplace wall ideas to really bring the space together? There are tons of tiny choices along the way as well.
If you are building a new home, it isn’t too early to start figuring out your fireplace options. Even with electric fireplaces, you will want design ideas to run with once the architect and home builder are done doing their job. Even if you are just doing a simple remodel, it is good to get a fireplace that matches your new home decor and interior design choices. There is no need to hire an expensive interior designer for your fireplace design choices. We are here to help.
Within the following article, we will discuss important distinctions between electric versus traditional fireplace types. We’ll also cover things like trendy decorating ideas to match your new fireplace. Why don’t we jump right into it?
In The Article That Is To Follow, Here Are All of The Topics That Are Going To Be Covered:
- Are Wood and Gas Fireplaces Good Solutions For Your Living Room? – At the beginning here, we will briefly go over the downsides of both wood-burning and gas fireplaces when used in your home.
- What Are All of the Benefits of Electric Fireplaces For a Living Room? – In comparison to a gas or wood fireplace, electric fireplaces have a long list of benefits. These benefits will be shared right here.
- How Many Common Varieties of Electric Fireplaces Are There That You Can Find To Use In a Living Room? – For people who see the value of electric fireplaces, here are all of the types you can expect to find.
- When Coming up with Fireplace Wall Ideas, Can You Build a DIY Stone Fireplace Wall To House Electric Fireplaces? – Within this section, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about working with natural stone and more for your fireplace surround.
- Is a Built-In Shiplap Wall Behind Electric Fireplaces Difficult To Install In Compared To Other Fireplace Wall Ideas? – Shiplap is a popular material to work with and here we will talk about how easy it actually is to work with.
- For Electric Fireplaces, What Are Some Other Fireplace Ideas? – For any modern fireplace, you need plenty of design inspiration. We’ll share plenty of ideas for the wall behind your fireplace that works well with your current room design.
- Which White Fireplace Brand That Matches White Walls, Has The Most Realistic Fire Effects? – For beautiful electric fireplaces that come with an exquisite white wood mantel as well as other types, this is the brand that has the most realistic flames.
Are Wood and Gas Fireplaces Good Solutions For Your Living Room?
Wood-burning fireplaces come in a few distinct types:
- Open Hearth – The most common type of traditional fireplaces. It is an open fireplace built into the wall. It’s attached to a chimney with a flue. You usually put a fire screen up for some basic protections.
- Enclosed – For some added efficiency and safety, there is the enclosed fireplace. In these, the fire is built behind glass doors. Heat is then pushed into the home through special vents instead of the fire being directly exposed to the room.
- Insert – While there are many types of inserts, this type is to turn an open hearth-style fireplace into an enclosed version.
- Wood Stoves – Typically only found in rural cabins, these are metal stoves where wood is burned inside. The entire stove radiates heat. Basic cooking can be performed on the flat top of the stove.
- Fire Pit – Usually limited to open-air backyard areas, fire pits are more of a fun novelty rather than a serious fireplace.
Of course, there’s a long list of issues that exist if you want a wood-burning fireplace in your home:
- A big concern with wood fireplaces is the massive fire safety issues. Between an exposed flame and flammable soot buildup inside of the chimney, these fireplaces are a leading cause of house fires.
- Harmful emissions are another dangerous part of wood fireplaces. Even though the chimney provides some ventilation, it doesn’t completely remove harmful emissions. Smoke can fill your home along with carbon monoxide.
- Wood fireplaces are a pretty big hassle to use on a regular basis. Splitting wood, building a fire, and cleaning your fireplace are all daily requirements. In addition to this, you have to stoke the flames and keep a watchful eye on the fireplace for safety.
- Heat efficiency is a big issue with wood fireplaces. Since they require a chimney or other sufficient ventilation, a lot of heat is lost this way. This means you have to burn quite a lot of extra wood to make up for the massive heat loss.
- Smells from the smoke are hard to avoid. Smoke smells will linger in the air. They will also get into fibers of carpet, furniture, and even your clothes. While you may indeed get used to the smell, guests will notice the strong smell when they arrive.
- Staining occurs due to smoke. White walls will inevitably end up yellowed. Lighter-colored furniture and carpets will suffer the same fate as the walls.
- TV damage is almost guaranteed to occur if you mount one right above a wood fireplace. Rising smoke and heat quite easily damage electrical components within the TV set.
- Wood storage is something many people forget to consider at first. All of that wood that will need to be burned will need plenty of storage space outside of your home. If you lack storage capacity, you will require many inconvenient deliveries of wood.
- There is no doubt that wood fireplaces are very expensive to build. These are not small projects to undertake. It is a significant construction project and you may even have to move out until it is complete.
A gas fireplace within a home typically comes in two main varieties:
- Vented – These require ventilation due to excessive harmful emissions.
- Ventless – Ventless fireplaces don’t need ventilation due to producing fewer harmful emissions.
Even though gas fireplaces are a slightly better choice than fireplaces that burn wood, they still have their problems to consider:
- An exposed flame is still present with gas fireplaces. Any time there is a flame exposed in your home, there is an added risk of a house fire. While gas fireplaces tend to be safer than wood fireplaces, it is important to know that risk is still there.
- Carbon monoxide is still a very serious concern regarding gas fireplaces. As the gas fails to burn completely, carbon monoxide is released into the air of your home. These emissions can be deadly in high enough concentrations.
- Flame color for gas fireplaces tends to be aesthetically displeasing. Gas fireplaces with natural colors tend to look dull and unrealistic. Fireplaces with blue flames look absolutely fake and tacky. Many owners with blue flames end up regretting that choice in time.
- It isn’t just the color. The flames are also very weak. Consider that the burners are really just a series of slightly larger Bunsen burners. The boring stream also means that interesting flame flickering isn’t really present.
- Gas fireplaces are another costly installation. Professionals have to run gas lines. They also often need to install ventilation along with the fireplace.
What Are All of the Benefits of Electric Fireplaces For a Living Room?
On the other end of the spectrum, you have electric fireplaces. Not only do they avoid all of the problems that come with wood and gas options, but they also have additional benefits as well. Below are the most common reasons to install electric fireplaces over traditional types:
- With electric fireplaces, there isn’t any additional risk of a house fire as you get with ones that use wood or gas for fuel. Electric fireplaces don’t produce any flames whatsoever.
- Another great thing about electric fireplaces is the complete lack of harmful emissions. There isn’t anything that comes out of them besides warm, clean air.
- Both stains and smells are something that you don’t have to worry about due to the lack of smoke produced by electric fireplaces.
- Using electric fireplaces. Once you turn it on and the temperature is set, you don’t have to do anything else. The fireplace works harder to increase heat whenever needed to stay at your ideal temperature.
- Installing electric fireplaces is incredibly effortless. After choosing the location you want to place it, simply find a nearby electrical plug. While some installations can be more involved depending on the fireplace type, most installations can be done by yourself.
- You can install one in any room of your home. Put one in your family room, dining room, bedroom, and more. One of the reasons for this is the complete lack of necessary ventilation.
- It is completely safe to mount your TV above the fireplace mantel of electric fireplaces. All of the warm air produced by electric fireplaces is blown toward the center of a room. It doesn’t rise directly upwards.
- Heat efficiency is outstanding with electric fireplaces. You don’t lose heat through ventilation and infrared heating coils use minimal energy.
- You can save additional money on heating even with extremely large houses. To do this, you would set up a zone heating strategy. This is sometimes also called supplemental heating. Multiple fireplaces are strategically placed around the home. A fireplace is only turned on when that zone of the house is occupied.
- Most electric fireplaces come with a remote control so that you can easily control it without getting up from your seat.
- If you have a fireplace with realistic holographic flame technology, you can properly capture the ambiance of traditional wood fireplaces.
How Many Common Varieties of Electric Fireplaces Are There That You Can Find To Use In a Living Room?
Electric fireplaces come in several types and you want to make sure you get the right one for your specific situation. Some are perfect to install against a wall. Others you should be cautious of. There are even types you should avoid altogether. Here is the list of common electric fireplaces:
- Flat Wall Mantel Package – For people who truly want the most traditional style of fireplace, they would get one of these flat wall mantel package units. These are installed up against the wall so they look much like a regular wood fireplace. However, they usually come in two pieces and are installed together. This allows manufacturers to easily offer many different mantel style choices.
- Corner Fireplace – One of these units functions essentially the same way as the wall units. However, these are built to fit in a corner. A corner fireplace allows you to save space while putting an asymmetrical focus on the room.
- TV Stand Fireplace – These are TV stands with fireplaces built into the body of them. Be careful with these. Often, these units have to make sacrifices on the fireplace itself due to space limitations.
- Corner TV Stand Fireplace – Being a corner version of the TV stand fireplace, these come with many of the same issues. If you have your heart set on a corner fireplace, go with a standard one rather than a TV stand version. They are usually higher quality and you can still place TVs on top of them depending on the TV size.
- Wall-Mounted Electric Fireplace – These fireplace-in-wall units are mounted up on the wall rather than on the floor against the wall. Special mounting brackets help secure it to the studs within the wall. They can also be installed into recessed walls, giving them a more modern style.
- Electric Insert – These inserts convert existing wood fireplaces into electric ones.
- Freestanding Fireplace Heater – Freestanding fireplaces are cheap and tacky portable heaters with basic fireplace aesthetics. You usually want to avoid these.
- Electric Stoves – These are simply electric versions of wood stoves. Don’t use one of these unless you truly love a rural cabin aesthetic.
When Coming up with Fireplace Wall Ideas, Can You Build a DIY Stone Fireplace Wall To House Electric Fireplaces?
Stone is great if you want a very traditional look in your fireplace area. While real stones will usually look the best and last the longest, there are other options as well. You can use faux stone or synthetic stone to build your fireplace area. This is just a stone-looking synthetic decoration, and can be simply glued or attached to the wall. It is usually cheaper, lighter, and easier to install. However, it may not look as authentic in most cases. On top of this, it will not last nearly as long. Fauxstone will need repairs or replacement after a certain number of years. Real stone is much easier to care for and can last a lifetime or more.
Is a Built-In Shiplap Wall Behind Electric Fireplaces Difficult To Install In Compared To Other Fireplace Wall Ideas?
Shiplap paneling is a wonderful way to decorate the wall behind your fireplace. With minimal tools and equipment, you can easily and quickly install it against your existing wall. It is incredibly easy to cut wood to fit flush around your fireplace. Beyond that, all you need to do is keep the wood flush as you install it, and make sure you are nailing the panels to the studs behind the drywall. It’s that easy.
For Electric Fireplaces, What Are Some Other Fireplace Ideas?
There are really so many possibilities for wall designs and fireplace design ideas for the area behind and around your fireplace. It is a good idea to go online and look up examples pertaining to the specific design style you use in your home. Keep in mind things like paint colors you plan to use when coming up with room ideas.
For starters, it is important to think about what style of fireplace you have and how it relates to the room. Some are very versatile. A brick fireplace can work just as well with a modern home as it can with something more rustic. A minimalist style will call for something with clean lines and monotone color schemes.
If you were going the more luxurious route, you need to put a lot of thought into every feature. Each feature needs to be of the absolute best quality. The build quality of how it all comes together is also vital. Homeowners with a chandelier may want to find matching sconces. You may want a marble fireplace or marble surround with a herringbone pattern wall backing. Some other tile fireplace backing can also be used.
Make sure that you stay consistent with your designs. If you have a bohemian style throughout the rest of your room, you need to make sure the fireplace wall area also fits a boho style.
When doing a fireplace makeover with electric fireplaces, will you have the TV mounted above it? In this case, some shelving options might be a good idea for your devices and media collection. Instead of a bookcase placed against the wall, you can have bookshelves built directly into the wall on either side of the fireplace. Understand that a lot of styles that are popular this year, may look outdated really quickly. Because of this, it is often a good idea to go with beautiful, timeless aesthetics with a somewhat minimal feel. White is clean and always looks in style. Color can be added in the form of art, furniture, curtains, and rugs.
Which White Fireplace Brand That Matches White Walls, Has The Most Realistic Fire Effects?
MagikFlame fireplaces come with several beautiful white mantels of different styles. While MagikFlame is most known for its incredibly realistic fire effects, that isn’t all they have to offer. Here is everything you can expect from MagikFlame:
- Ultra-realistic Fire Effects – There are 30 different fire effect styles you can select with MagikFlame styles. Each style allows you to set the mood to your exact preference. The 3D flame effects are holographically projected right onto the physical log set inside of the firebox. A glowing ember bed is a foundation the log set rests on. The flames flicker and move like a real flame, with beautiful sparkling embers as well.
- Crackling Log Sounds – To further enhance the stunning visuals, they are accompanied by impressive audio. The sounds of crackling logs can be heard coming from MagikFlame fireplaces. By adding crackling log sounds, the atmosphere, and authenticity are further elevated. Some relaxing sounds of nature are also available.
- 5,200 BTU Infrared Heater – Having a heater that is both powerful and efficient is no problem with MagikFlame fireplaces. An infrared quartz heating device can easily warm an area of up to 1,000 square feet. While this is enough for most apartments, condos, and houses, zone heating is possible for larger homes. Multiple MagikFlame fireplaces can work to keep your home warm while minimizing your heating bill.
- Smartphone App – Get rid of those boring remotes. Instead, control your fireplace with the intuitive smartphone app. With the large buttons and straightforward design, control every aspect of your fireplace from your tablet or smartphone. The app allows you to turn the fireplace on or off, set the temperature, and control visual and audio effects.
- Luxurious Aesthetic Choices – While MagikFlame offers a variety of beautiful white mantel choices, they also have others. You can get a black fireplace, cherrywood, or even an insert for your own custom build.
