Setting the Mood

Ornate and functional fireplace accessories will warm most any room

Patricia McLean

The fireplace is often the focal point of a room.  It portrays warmth and the feeling of coziness.  The way in which you accessorize it determines the mood the fireplace sets for the room.

One of the most difficult tasks for many people is arranging accessories and knowing what to add or where to find them.  A designer's strongest assets are plentiful resources and the talent for placing objects once found.  The mantle and hearth must both be addressed and made to be harmonious.

There are many terms - both English and French - used in a discussion of dressing the hearth.

A typical treatment is a screen and fender.  These work together to keep the fire in place.  One of the best looking English approaches is the use of a club fender.  A club fender is a brass or steel rail guard that functions as a guard to keep people a certain distance from the fire and also works as a seat for warming oneself.  Fire tools are often placed on firedogs, brass rests that allow the tools to lie flat on the hearth.

The French answer to fenders are chenets.  Usually very ornamental, they function as a border to the opening of the fireplace.

Inside the fireplace the first thing to determine is how the fireplace is going to function.  Will it burn wood, coal, run on gas logs or gas coals?  Andirons are the usual holder of real wood.  The scale of the andirons is very important to the correct treatment of the fire box.  A coal grate is required for coal to be burned.  These can be very beautiful and are usually made of brass and steel.  Gas fireplaces can burn false wood logs or false coal, which is housed in a coal grate.  The mantle is most important to the entire look of the fireplace.  Through the ages all kinds of materials have been used to construct the mantlepiece.  Marble was fashionable in France while many of the country houses of England used limestone or fieldstone native to the environs.  Wooden-carved mantles have always been popular in the States.

The antique carved wooden mantles found in older homes in England are very desirable for American homes today.  They are salvaged by architectural companies that import them for use in this country.  Sometimes you can even use them where there's not a fireplace.

The Lady's Bedroom I designed for one Show House did not have a fireplace.  I mounted an antique mantle to the wall, had the faux artist paint a back drop to look like a slate surround and brick interior and laid real slate as the hearth.  A coal grate sat in front to add to the illusion that it was a working fireplace.

Finally, the trick to making the entire fireplace wall work well is in the proper placement of objects.  One of the nicest mantle installations I did for a client was photographed in various degrees of development.  The centerpiece for the fireplace was the antique hand-carved mantle.  The fireplace was flanked by beautiful window treatments, and a handsome landscape the client owned was hung above the mantle.  The finishing touches were topiaries and ivy, a pair of Chinese export plates and a beautiful fender and fire tools.  The last touches can sometimes be the most important.

The proportion and scale of accessories to the mantle are most critical.  Do not overcrowd and do not forget to address function:  tools, andirons and, for safety's sake always have a screen.

The fireplace is very often the focal point of the room and you should devote the proper time, resources and energy in making sure it looks its best.

(Atlanta Buckhead-September 1999)