You’ve finally got the perfect stove installed, you have had your chimney swept, so what’s the next step? Making the area look aesthetically pleasing so you can enjoy your fire with a beautiful surrounding?

Here are 4 ways to add visual appeal to your fireplace mantel.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall…

Adding a mirror above your fireplace mantel can make the room look bigger, it can also create a sense of spaciousness and openness.

Top Trick: adding a mirror can fool the eye into perceiving more space, depth and makes the room look larger than it is.

Themes

By having a theme each season, you can play around with many decorations, in the summer time you may wish to add fresh flowers in a lovely vase to draw attention to the fireplace. In the spring, you may want to add some colourful plants or light coloured ornaments on the shelf of the fireplace mantel and light fresh linen scented candles to make the room smell fresh. In the fall, you may wish to be more creative and add Halloween decorations, pumpkins, and leaves on the mantel. Finally, in the winter time you can add candles, lanterns and Christmas decorations to give you that Christmas feeling.

Family Photos or Paintings

If you want more of a homely feel, you may wish to hang a family canvas or frame a family photo and place it on top of the mantel for family and friends to see. Camera shy? What about putting up a photo of your pet or a nice painting?

Less is More

If you prefer to keep it simple, just simply add a few decorations on one side of the mantel so it does not look too cluttered. You may even want to add a few logs on one side of the mantel, to give you a nice minimalistic look.

There are so many creative ways to make your fireplace stand out. What are some of your tips?