Living room with fireplace: types and recommendations for choosing

A living room with a fireplace always looks advantageous in the interior of a house or apartment, emphasizing the impeccable taste of the owners. This element can become the central accent in the decoration or emphasize the general stylistic orientation. Live fire and its electric imitation, false fireplace and biofireplace - there are many options that allow you to implement the chosen idea in a room of any area. The elegant interior of the fireplace room in a modern or classic style looks very respectable.

What should be the design of a small room with a biofireplace or false fireplace, how is an imitation of a Provence-style fireplace and other options without a chimney and a classic firebox created? - all these subtleties of creating a fireplace area in ordinary urban and suburban housing should be studied in advance. The design field offers opportunities to make the fireplace dream come true even where open fire is strictly prohibited. You just need to make the right choice and choose a harmonious setting for the hearth in the space of the hall.

A living room with a fireplace is a rather difficult idea to implement, requiring careful preparation and calculations. Everything is important here:

• hall area;
• room configuration;
• choice of finishing options;
• arrangement of furniture.

The fireplace room is always created on the basis of a design project necessary for the precise planning of all details of the future furnishings. Work begins from determining the location of the fireplace in an apartment or house - it should harmoniously fit into the overall layout of the room.

It is not recommended to place the fireplace on the aisle - it will constantly overlap as it moves around the room. It is also undesirable to place it near doors and windows. The practical part of using the fireplace also matters. The highest heat dissipation is characteristic of classic wood-burning models, as well as imitations that use electricity for heating. But modern bio fireplaces as heating devices are practically useless - the heat generated by their flame will clearly not be enough to heat the room.

The fireplace portal is a convenient solution if you need to provide the best conditions for placing a fireplace in the interior. This specially equipped niche in the classic version is connected to the chimney. But if a false fireplace is created, the portal plays the role of a frame and can become part of a general storage system or a stand for fresh flowers.

If more recently the concept of a fireplace assumed exclusively wood-burning varieties, today this range is much wider. Their main differences lie in the stylistic variety, the type of fuel or energy used, the intensity of heat radiation and the way of placement. The only obligatory element here is the portal - the facade part, which is created from refractory material and serves as a frame.

By location, all types of fireplaces are divided into several options.

• Corner. The best option, combined with almost any interior solution. It is easy to fit such a fireplace into the living room in small-sized housing without losing useful space. A soft corner with two armchairs or a sofa is easily arranged around.

• Built-in... The chimney of such fireplaces runs inside the wall and is laid even at the stage of building the building. Today, biofireplaces are popular, placed in a portal built in the wall or in a plasterboard partition, they are often combined with aquariums. The design takes up little space and fits organically into a modern environment. A built-in fireplace portal should be effective and catchy.

• Wall mounted. Most popular among them all. They take up quite a lot of space, since they protrude from the wall, they can be free-standing (important for electric fireplaces). The framing for the portal wall placed in a niche is made quite textured: made of brick, wild stone, decorative tiles.

• Island. They are located in the center of the room, replacing a coffee or coffee table, or decorate the recreation area. Most often, biofireplaces are placed in this way, but there are also electric models that have a decorative design in the back wall area. This imitation looks pretty attractive and does not require a chimney.

There is also a division of fireplaces into different types according to the type of fuel. In this case, we can highlight:

• wood burning - natural wood is used for burning fire;

• electricalimitating fire with decorative screens and lamps;

• gasin which the flame is maintained by burning fuel in burners;

• bio fireplaces - here ethanol acts as a burning fuel.

Another division is by the method of heat radiation. It can be one-sided - all hearths with a front panel, built-in and wall-mounted, have it. Double-sided look interesting and unusual, effectively complement modern interior solutions. The most rare options are three-sided, but their function is predominantly decorative - it is, rather, a pseudo-fireplace than a real hearth.

What a fireplace is made of in the interior of a house or apartment depends entirely on its type. If we are talking about the classic wood-burning version, it is equipped with a firebox lined with refractory material - ceramic blocks, bricks, or a steel, cast-iron structure is installed in the wall.

Fireplaces with a fire-resistant glass screen, through which the fire is clearly visible, are considered safer.

Gas fireplaces it is not necessary to embed it into the portal, there are portable versions of them. Such structures are made of steel or cast iron, faced with ceramic tiles.

Electric fireplaces are made in the form of separate blocks, like electric heaters, but with a decorative screen, which depicts a burning fire. There are various options for simulating embers or dancing tongues of flame. They provide the ability to faithfully recreate the desired burning fire effect. When embedded in a niche, they are framed with stainless steel strips or decorated with stone-like tiles.

Bio fireplaces are always made of glass, and is similar in design to an aquarium, with wicks and a fuel tank built into the bottom.

The color scheme of the fireplace in the interior of an apartment or house is of great importance for the correct perception of this unusual detail of the furnishings. There is a rule: the decoration of the hearth should be expressive, but not discord with the general design of the space. If the living room is white or decorated in light colors, the fireplace can mimic its shade - for example, using glossy milky tiles. You can play on contrasts, but not in color, but in texture.

The light metal facade of the fireplace portal is a stylish addition to the high-tech living room. It matches well with the characteristic monochrome finish, it looks noble and stylish. Bright colors are easy to find too. The olive green portal can be added to the setting of a lilac or pink living room. Beige walls will be an effective frame for a gray hearth.

In a spacious room, you can use more contrasting design finds, emphasized by complex color combinations. It is worth avoiding pure tones - blue, red, yellow, green - they will simplify, reduce the cost of the interior. But noble shades of burgundy or emerald, malachite and Dijon mustard, denim, sea wave will look more respectable.

It is better to complement the living room in dark colors with a lighter fireplace in a classic style. Here, the use of cladding in the form of glazed tiles with a traditional blue pattern on a white background, patchwork or natural marble finishes looks spectacular. The copper portal will decorate a room in a graphite-gray scale. You can add a white gypsum hearth to burgundy walls or khaki.

Stylistic variety in design is also quite important in choosing a fireplace for a living room. When deciding to decorate the interior in a certain manner, the hearth also needs to be matched to it. Among the popular options are the following.

• Modern style. To harmoniously fit a fireplace into such an interior, you will need to use laconic, simple materials with a smooth texture. Both wood-burning and electric fireplaces are supplied with monochrome tiled cladding. Double-sided biofireplaces go well with modern style.

• English style... The fireplace here is an indispensable component of comfort and a source of warmth in the living room. An English-style fireplace should only be natural, faced with white or pink bricks, with a firewood cabinet at the bottom and a carved wooden shelf on top.

• Provence. A romantic fireplace in pink or cream stone cladding will harmoniously fit into the style of such an interior. In the decoration of the living room in the spirit of French Provence, cladding made of limestone or natural carved wood will also be appropriate.

• Classic style... For this decor option, as well as for the Baroque and Neoclassicism, decorative elements in the form of stucco molding, stone columns, cladding of white or colored marble are characteristic. A smooth plaster facade or imitation of brick, masonry from wild limestone also looks very respectable.

• Chalet. The coziness of a Swiss house in the mountains is most often formed precisely due to the classic wood-burning hearth, which additionally provides heat to the spacious living room, often combined with the dining room and kitchen. Natural stone in the facing of such a fireplace will be most appropriate. Preference should be given to beige and gray colors.

• Scandinavian. Here, a fireplace is not an obligatory, but a favorite element of interior decoration. Scandinavian coziness is achieved with the help of light tiled or stone facing of the portal. If the living room is spacious enough and decorated in the traditional taupe color, beige and gray colors are also used in the decoration of the hearth.

• High tech. This ultra-modern style allows for the use of fire as a decorative element. Here, metals are used as the main materials - steel or copper, glass with white or black moldings. Natural wood-burning stoves are most often mounted inside the portal in the wall, in a hidden form, a white glossy cladding or tiles or tinted glass is created outside.

• Country. In this style, the fireplace looks spectacular in a brick or masonry frame. But if you want to make a more rustic interior, you can use the original ceramic tiles. Country-style metal fireplace portals with copper details in decoration or a spectacular carved solid wood shelf will be appropriate.

When choosing a fireplace in the living room for a room in a country house, it is better to lay down a chimney and a place for the firebox in advance in the project. For a small room in an apartment, it is better to plan the presence of an artificial hearth or false portal at the stage of preparation for repair. It is quite difficult to adapt such an element to a ready-made environment.

It is important to remember that the hearth is the centerpiece of the room.

It is better to install a gas fireplace in the living room if it is combined with the kitchen and dining room. The distribution of gas supply pipes in the apartment is very limited, and you will have to obtain a special permit to use such a device. The best options for fireplaces for an apartment are electric or ethanol.

Bio fireplaces generate almost no heat, but they can still heat the surfaces located around. Such options are usually mounted in specially created plasterboard partitions, false walls.Ready-made biofireplaces are often built into small coffee tables or offer tabletop models - they can be installed on a wall console or placed in a wall niche.

An island fireplace in the living room is an interesting design solution, especially well in harmony with the design of the hall connected to the hall. It can be installed near the stairs, placed in the walk-through room outside the aisles.

Spectacular hanging fireplaces are traditional in modern Scandinavian interiors. Such models are made of metal.

If you plan not only to admire a fireplace in a house or apartment, but also to heat the room, it is worth choosing a model with electric heating or a wood-burning stove from the very beginning. They generate a sufficient amount of heat during operation. Electric fireplaces for domestic use have a power of up to 2 kW and are capable of heating a room without additional heat sources.

To correctly place a fireplace in the interior of a house or apartment, it is imperative to take into account the features of the layout of the room. Biofireplaces are usually installed in the center of the room; you can supplement them with a variety of lighting effects. It is better to place a fireplace built into the wall in the middle or install it opposite the entrance. It can be made brighter and more contrasting, framed with molding.

In the spacious hall, the fireplace is distinguished using other design techniques. If the main design of the room is laconic, a variety of shelves with trinkets, family photos in frames are placed around the portal on the wall. You can also act in reverse, creating a minimalist fireplace part of the living room and filling the rest of the area with bright details.

In a hall with a clear division into zones, corner fireplaces look good. The hearth can be electric or wood-burning, in other parts of the room the emphasis is on the bar counter, TV or home theater, and an aquarium. Each of the zones must be sufficiently balanced, not overpowering the others.

An electric fireplace or biofireplace can be built into a partition between rooms or a specially designed column. Another option is to combine this element with a bar counter. If the interior has a bay window, the fireplace is mounted to the left or right of it. In the living room-hallway, the fireplace room can be equipped in the space under the stairs, complementing it with an interesting tiled floor and making the original facing of the portal.

• Stylish island fireplace in the lobby-living room. It blends harmoniously into the modern interior and has beautiful lines. Glass screens from 4 sides look very impressive in combination with panoramic glazing of the room. The color scheme of the interior is built on the contrast of white and black.

• Stylish fireplace room in the country spirit. The cladding of wild stone with an uneven edge emphasizes the comfort of the hearth. The firebox with live fire is covered with a special glass screen. The fireplace is spectacularly framed with natural wood wall cladding, wall shelves and lamps on stands.

• A biofireplace in the living room interior can also look quite harmonious. The firebox with live fire looks very impressive and at the same time harmoniously combines with the atmosphere of a city apartment. A restrained, noble design solution is closed on the hearth and correctly frames it.

The design of a living room with a fireplace in a country house is shown below.