Having a fireplace in your home makes the overall home decor look more luxurious and stylish. If you are lucky enough to have a fireplace in your room, then you must make the most of it. There are many fireplace mantel designs and choosing the right one is important, as the wrong choice can throw off the balance and proportion of a fireplace. Sleek fireplace mantels in clean lines are best for modern and contemporary rooms. A wood mantel with carvings is ideal for a cottage style decor. Whatever mantel design you choose, make sure that it looks cohesive with the fireplace surround and overall decor of the room.
Fireplace Mantel Plans
There are many fireplace mantel design plans from simple ones to more ornate and elaborate designs. Before you choose a particular fireplace mantel design for your fireplace, take stock of the dimensions of the room in which the fireplace is installed and the kind of decor it has. An over sized fireplace mantel with lots of carvings and ornate details will look out-of-place in a small living room. Worse, it would give the living room a very cluttered look. Here are a few fireplace mantel designs that you can take inspiration from.
Mantel with Molding
For a small room with a fireplace, one of the best fireplace mantel design ideas is to use moldings for constructing the mantel. Using wood molding and plaster molding is a great way to make the fireplace mantel stand out and become the focal point of the room. Make sure that the mantel design is sleek and restrained and the size of the mantel is proportional to that of the fireplace surround and hearth. Avoid constructing mantels with moldings that has overly carved designs, as they are not suitable for a small room.
Mantels made out of moldings in a lighter color like white, beige and eggshell blue looks best.
Stone Mantel
For a larger room with a fireplace, stone mantels are a very good option. Stone mantels gives a rustic and laid back atmosphere to a room. For a more organic feel, choose a mantel design that uses round river stones and pebbles instead of quarry stones. If a rustic appearance is not what you are aiming for, then choose slate stones or polished black granite for constructing the mantel. This type of polished stones gives a very sleek and streamlined appearance to the fireplace. Since these fireplace mantels have a unique look of their own, avoid decorating it with picture frames and other decorative knickknacks. A simple rectangular mirror with an antique silver frame placed over the fireplace mantel is sufficient decoration.
Wooden Mantel
If you would like to give your home an old world charm, and a traditional ambiance, then there is no better fireplace mantel design idea than to have a wooden mantel. Wooden fireplace mantels are very popular, and there are many designs that you can choose from. A wooden fireplace mantel in a dark wood with minimum carvings gives the fireplace a stylish look. If your living room is a large one, then you can choose an ornately carved wooden fireplace mantel.
If you want to break away from the norm, and want a Mediterranean home decor, then brick mantels would look the best. Brick mantels are very easy to design and install, and they are inexpensive too. You can also choose to design mantels with ceramic tiles. Since ceramic tiles are heat-resistant and available in a wide variety of sizes and colors, it offers you greater flexibility while designing a mantel. Fireplace mantel designs should complement the fireplace surround and hearth. When you have a good fireplace mantel design, it allows you to experiment with different types of mantel decorating ideas.
