Make your fireplace spectacular all year round

In winter there is no better place to be than sitting in front of a fireplace. The crackle of the wood, the flicker of the flames and the great appeal it brings to a living room or bedroom during those cold winter nights, but what do you do with your fireplace during the summer months?

There are many ways to make your fireplace a feature of any room without it having to be heating the house, and most of them are relatively inexpensive and easy to do using timber mouldings. See these simple fireplace mantel moulding ideas to inspire you to make your fireplace spectacular all year round.

Simple Shelving

Finish with corbels or chair rail underneath to give extra detail and pick me up.

Cornice Moulds the Crowning Glory

If you want something more dramatic and want your fireplace to appear taller and larger, then try some cornice moulds! You can build in a shelf on top if you’re looking for extra storage space for your knick-knacks, or you can frame with decorative architrave or create a wainscoting effect with architectural inlay moulds.

The A to F of Architraves

Architraves not only look beautiful around windows and doors but can be used in a variety of ways around a fireplace to add intriguing lines or a simple frame. Using a large architrave with some decorative appeal, a fireplace can find a way to hold its own within the room without overpowering. You can also blend your fireplace design into the rest of your timber mouldings by adding your skirting boards along the bottom of the fireplace columns as in the image below.

Wainscoting is not only for Walls

Just as you would create a beautiful frame and panel wainscoting on a wall you can use the same design ideas to create frame and panel wainscoting to enhance the effect of columns and decorative features around your fireplace, as has been created below. Inlay mould and sill nosing have been used to define this fireplace and make it a stand-out decorative feature in the room.

Design from Top to Toe

Ceiling-high designs are excellent for longer walls and rooms which need larger detailing to help close them in to feel more homely. The example below has used stone on the wall with skirting running along the bottom, but you can replace the stone with frame and panel designs or tongue and groove lining board panels. You could also paint these in bold colours for maximum effect.