Fireplace Decor: Hearth Design Tips

Top designers mix up the mantel, creating graphic, asymmetrical or three-dimensional arrangements easy to replicate in your own home. Here are five ways to make your mantel marvelous, and heat up the decor of any room.

By Susan Kleinman
Filed under: Fireplace, Mantels, Decorating

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stone fireplace is focus of family great room

See, Touch, Admire

Whether hung on a wall or propped up, the things above your fireplace don't need to be two-dimensional. In fact, in a contemporary home where there is no shelf at all above the fireplace, says designer Raji, "you absolutely need a three-dimensional sculpture, because a flat thing like a painting will almost disappear." Art galleries and museum shops offer lots of sculptural choices. But don't be afraid to think beyond officially-designated objets d'art. New York-based interior designer Amie Weitzman has mounted antique weathervanes and giant African currency above her own fireplaces; the effect, she says, is offbeat and dramatic. Design by Gina Fitzsimmons.