You love your home’s fireplace. It’s beautiful, stylish, and perfectly suited to your home’s style. There’s just one problem with that fantastic fireplace – you just never use it! If you have always envisioned a home with a roaring fire, but you live in Arizona, it is likely that you have found very few occasions to indulge in a fireside night indoors.
For others, the fireplace that came with their home is simply the non-working kind, and that means that you get a nice-looking fireplace without any of the perks of a warming fire. Whatever your fireplace situation is, there is something that you can do to transform your unused fireplace into a usable space.
Instead of letting all that space go to waste, why not repurpose your fireplace so that it can truly stand out and be a showcase space in your home. When using working fireplaces as temporary spaces, when the weather turns roaring fire-worthy, you’ll be able to remove the décor and stoke the flames to your heart’s content.
Add Some Shelves
You can never have enough shelf space. By adding a shelf to divide the space, you could hold beautiful and interesting trinkets, records, books, and even some picture frames. There is never a shortage of items that would look stunning inside of your fireplace.
If you are not ready to drill into your fireplace walls to add a shelf, consider a floating shelf that is suspended by a chain or no-drill required shelving options.
Make it Pretty with a Picture
When you have a piece of art that deserves a prominent place in your home, a fireplace can be the optimal space to display it. Fireplaces offer a natural frame for paintings, pictures, and sculptures that can make a work of art the center of attention in a living room, bedroom, or office.
If you do not already have a painting or piece of art that is suited to display in this manner, you can design your own and either set it inside the fireplace or fit it to cover the fireplace front completely.
Create A Fireplace Bookcase
Book lovers everywhere are thrilled to keep their favorite stories in places of prominence in the home, and what could be better than a fireplace bookshelf to show off your unique collection and even boast some first editions and collectible hardcovers with magnificent covers?
To step up your fireplace bookcase, you could have a fire theme to really tie the whole design together. Texts like Stephen King’s Firestarter, Mariana Enriquez’s Things We Lost in the Fire, and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 would be perfectly fitting in your fireplace bookcase.
Tuck Pet Beds Away
If you have a beloved cat or dog, you know that finding them the perfect place to snuggle up on their beds means making space in your home. If you have a non-working fireplace, why not turn it into an indoor house for your pet?
Just lay the pet’s bed inside the base of the fireplace atop a blanket or small, fitted rug, and in an instant, you’ll have a dedicated, out-of-the-way space for Fido to curl up that keeps him off the couch. Your pooch or cat will have a space to call their own.
Add Some Hot Rocks
Want to make your fireplace stand out as an artfully designed space in your home? Add some hot rocks to the alcove. Large chunks of amethyst, detailed geodes and mineral-laden natural rock formations will make everyone stand up and take notice of your decadent and stylish design choices. Mineral rocks are in abundance here in Southern Arizona, and you would be remiss to skip this decorating option for your fireplace.
