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We started a new project to jazz up our tall fireplace. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted but we are stuck in the middle and I'm not sure what we should do next.
Here is before we started. A tall blank wall.
And here is where we are stuck.
Usually at this point of a project I'm so excited but I can't decide if I even like it. Usually I can imagine the final look but I can't for this one. Should I run horizontal white planks all the way up? Tile or stone it? Maybe a mosaic tile? Do wainscoting boxes? Any opinions or suggestions??
It doesn't go with what you have done so far, but I would have done a stone facade. If you're looking for relatively inexpensive, why not a big, long piece of artwork with some dimension?
Hopes pretty much suggested what I would have. I think you are on the right track, you are just in that in between phase. You probably wont have to add anything in the center in terms of paneling. Just add trim squares and then paint everything the same glossy white.
I've done plenty of two-story mantels over the years-
What you got, ain't it! The proportions are all wrong. Since you kept the original mantel, the legs for the upper portion should have been the same material, but they're too flat- have no dimension. Unfortunately, that is somewhat due to the blah tile surround.
The upper shelf should have a bigger breast plate than the lower, but it doesn't have to be the same shape. I prefer elliptical breast plates for upper mantels. As for all that space in between- I've done raised panel, shadow boxes (fake raised panel), plate mirror, and nothing. H/O's with the "nothing" space usually fill it with an extremely tall framed mirror, a tapestry, or a piece of artwork that is tall and narrow.
The TV thing is something new with flat screens- I personally hate TVs above a f/pl, and especially on a fireplace of that type (which is usually a Greatroom- having some formality to it). They just detract from the grandness of the f/pl.
So, if the TV is staying; I strongly recommend a total rebuild of the mantel and incorporate a pocket for the TV that can be hidden with a panel to match all the other panels above. Or use a picture/frame that is made for hiding flat screens. The panel idea and the picture are usually remote controlled to cover/uncover the TV.
The picture that "Hopes" posted mostly shows what you need to do:
#1. Raise the existing mantel so that it is about head height.
#2. Find someplace else for the flat screen. Maybe even do like k'nldgabldr suggests and put it behind panel / or artwork but the key is that a big BLACK rectangle is going to visually be a "black hole" that ruins the effect of the two story space and makes your eye STOP when it hits black.
#3. Instal appropriated scaled and painted trim / panels in the "field" so that you don't have "blank wall" showing at all. Even if you can track down "art" (not pictures of giraffes or something stupid but real art...) you want to have that surrounded by "white" not "wall"...
#5. Get tile (or better, actual slab stone -- it ought to be cheap, only a couple of feet) that has much more dramatic impact with bolder color. The stuff up now is like for a guest bath or laundry room. Looks very very very low end.
#6. Paint the back of the inside of the built-ins to match the rest of the trim. It looks goofy, almost like wallpaper or something that was a "unfinished kit" now.
i agree with just about everything chet everett says. I disagree on the shelving background. While I don't love what is behind there now, I think having a contrasting color or wallpaper at the back of built-ins looks fantastic, and often much better than everything painted white (shelves, trim, and back wall all white)
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