Tips on getting a corner fireplace for that dream home you always wanted

A corner fireplace can be a great boon to any room you place one in.  They are great for maximizing the space of underused areas, leaving you with longer walls to place furniture, art, or just help open up the room.

A corner fireplace is good or both public and private areas. A wood-burning fireplace placed eye-level in the kitchen will help keep your guests warm and also grant you some new roasting and grilling options.

Of course, this corner fireplace is on the opposite part of the spectrum when it comes to fireplace designs, right across double sided fireplaces. It has its charm, though. And can help decorate a corner of your room well.

Image source: Neal Huston & Associates

Get a gas log fireplace and place it near a large bathtub to help make the atmosphere just right for some spa-like pampering. You could also place a remote controlled corner electric fireplace where it can be seen while you are lying in bed on chilly nights.

Where you place a corner fireplace is going to vary. It’s usually related to the size of the room and the length of the two intersecting walls in relation to the room’s windows and doors.

Image source: Farinelli Construction, Inc.

You’ll see a lot of corner fireplaces positioned at a 45-degree angle across a corner, though another fireplace design option is to site them on a wall so one side abuts a corner instead.

There are more modern and boxlike versions of corner fireplaces that will sit square in a corner. There have openings on two sides, which allows people to enjoy the warmth of the fire from adjacent rooms.

Regardless of how you place it, a corner fireplace will quickly become the focal point of the whole room. This can be emphasized with the addition of pleasant and eye-catching mantels, stone surrounds that rise up to the ceiling, or curvaceous stucco covered silhouettes.

Image source: DD Ford Construction

Expand the sense of the presence of a smaller corner fireplace by showcasing them with accent lights, hanging a decorative mirror or flat-screen TV above the mantel, framing them with built-in bookcases, or using them as a visual extension of a freestanding media center.

Remember, focal points determine the layout of the whole room. Everything else you do in the room should take advantage of the drama that comes from your corner fireplace. Furniture and deco should be oriented towards it. Without this kind of focus, the room will feel disjointed.

There are so many great corner fireplace ides out there. Here’s a guide to help you with corner fireplace design.

How to Manage (and Master) Furniture Placement

Image source: P2 Design

A corner fireplace is certainly an attractive addition to your home, but they can be quite tricky to design a space around.

The first thing you need to so when planning on a corner fireplace is thought about how you and your family will want to use the room and how often you will be having a fire in the hearth. These considerations are how you will be able to decide on how to move your furniture around.

Furniture should be oriented so that the pieces you plan to use the most often face the fireplace whenever possible. Some typical examples of these furniture pieces are bedsteads, sectional sofas, or kitchen banquettes. Place an area rug to help define floating furniture groupings.

Image source: KannCept Design, Inc.

These groupings should mirror the angle of your corner fireplace, leaving plenty of room for aisles that allow traffic to move around and through the furniture arrangement. For larger rooms, consider creating a square set furniture arrangement that is centered on the corner fireplace.

If you find a space to be tight, or oddly set up, think about including cushy lightweight chairs or swivel chairs. These can be set in front of or next to your corner fireplace, then moved or pivoted around as the conversation flows or people want to be closer to the corner fireplace.

Image source: Professional Design Consultants

One of the best fireplace ideas out there is to arrange your furniture based upon an area rug. An area rug will help define any floating furniture arrangements so that they face the angle of your corner fireplace.

Be sure to leave space for wide aisles for traffic so that people can move freely around without bumping into any furniture or people.

If your available space is not an issue, you could also make an arrangement set squarely in front of the fireplace. For smaller living rooms, swivel chairs can look and work very well set either next to or in front of the fireplace.

If you want to place furniture nearer the center of the room, make sure the room’s edges are filled with corner cabinets, bookcases, console tables, cozy seating areas, or comfortable work areas.

Image source: A.L. Interiors

Don’t be in a hurry to settle on one furniture arrangement without trying to rearrange and reposition the pieces a few times. This includes upholstered pieces, coffee and accent tables, lamps, and other accessories in the room.

This will allow you to select the most practical yet most pleasing arrangement of furniture and decor.

When everything is where it seems like it should be for looks and ease of use, light the fire in your fireplace (whether with a match, a remote control, or a wall switch), settle in and see how it feels to enjoy the room by the light of your corner fireplace.

Having a Living Room with a Corner Fireplace

Image source: LDa Architecture & Interiors

Comfort in any room with a corner fireplace is key, but this especially true for living rooms with corner fireplaces. These are major gathering spots for families and guests.

They see a lot of use every day and for special occasions alike. Living rooms are usually redecorated for holidays, too, so you may want to think about where the Christmas tree will go in the future, too.

Style is very important, too. More modern living rooms may opt for white corner fireplaces and white furniture. For a warmer mood, you might want a more traditional fireplace with an earthier, more rustic feel.

You should choose dark brown wooden chairs, tables, and sofas to go with this kind of corner fireplace.

Image source: Home Front Build

A corner fireplace is automatically the room’s focal point, but there are many ways you can make it stand out even more.

Opt to have the fireplace be made out of different materials than the rest of the room or at least a different texture. Stone corner fireplaces pop out from the rest of the room décor in most homes.

Of course, you can also choose to have the corner fireplace blend in more, but choose to decorate the area above and around it in some impressive ways. This can produce a very different kind of fireplace design.

If you place floor to ceiling wall mirrors across from the corner fireplace, you will enhance the visual effect, especially if the fireplace design is L-shaped. These mirrors will add depth and beauty to both the corner fireplace and the room as a whole.

You could alternatively arrange a group of mirrors of different sizes, shapes, and heights on each of the walls across or near the fireplace to create an eye-catching work of art, especially when the flames are blazing.

Accent pieces can also do a lot to enhance the appeal of your corner fireplace. They are the favorite choice of many interior designers. A well-chosen accent piece can help draw attention to your corner fireplace (or any focal point) or to enhance its existing appearance.

Some good ones to help make your corner fireplace more appealing are large floor vases, narrow chairs, or tall statues. Place these accent pieces on either end of the corner fireplace for a striking and dramatic touch.

When people think of fireplaces, they often think of the mantels. However, not all modern fireplaces have mantels. You can create a faux mantel by using decorative shelves placed over each side of it.

Image source: Jennifer Ashton, Allied ASID

You should choose decorative shelves made of materials that blend well with the other elements of the room. These shelves are also great places to put decorative accents, much like you would do on a real fireplace mantel.

If you are looking for a truly luxurious look, install some custom made fireplace doors. These items will add personality to the room and also serve a functional purpose, helping keep burning embers from flying out and preventing children or pets from getting too close to the flames.

There are many options out there in many styles and materials. If you have an interior designer that you are working with, speak to them for some great fireplace ideas about fireplace doors.

If a corner fireplace simple does not add enough drama to the room for you, don’t worry, you can easily add even more.

Think about having contrasting color schemes for the walls above the corner fireplace. Maybe use a textured treatment that makes good use of bright color in patterns of varying dark and light.

Also, if the room has very limited natural lighting, consider adding a glazed wall treatment. This will help catch what rays of sunlight that do enter the space and reflect them, making it seem like more natural light is getting in.

Combine Your Focal Points

Image source: Kim Radovich

While most rooms only have one focal point, with a corner fireplace, you can end up with several. Unless you arrange things in the right way, the result can be disjointed or unfocused.

If there is a TV in the room, most people will want to view both TV and the fireplace at the same time. There are several ways to manage this:

• TV above the fireplace. While fairly common, it is not always the best choice, since it places the TV fairly high in most corner fireplace designs. It is a very flexible and easy to do way of combining coal points, however.
• Both corner fireplace and TV in close proximity. In this case, the TV is usually placed on a wall, media console, or built-in media center that sits close to the fireplace. The furniture in the room is oriented to take advantage of both the TV and the corner fireplace.
• Create two seating areas. If you have the space, you could choose to arrange a main seating area around the TV, where it is the focal point, and a smaller secondary seating area that is focused on the corner fireplace.
• Have the corner fireplace s a backdrop. A fireplace is very nice, but if the choice is between the TV and the fireplace, in most cases the TV wins. Place your seating so that the TV is clearly defined as the focal point of the room. The corner fireplace then becomes a pleasant backdrop.
• Think outside the box. All the arrangements above have been tried in many places and worked or not worked depending on a lot of factors. For your home, try different arrangements to see what works for you, your family, the layout of your room, and your lifestyle. Something may surprise you. Moving around a large TV is hard work, so see if you can use design software to get a sense of how different arrangements will work.

Use a Corner Fireplace to Update a Traditional Room

Image source: Murphy & Co. Design

There are many ways to use a traditional electric corner fireplace in the corner of a room to make an old space feel new again.

Electric fireplaces are actually very simple on their own, and while they make a good focal point for giving a space a fresh new feeling, they will need some help from the rest of your design elements to finish the job. Some ideas to help your corner fireplace make a room feel brand new include:

• Paint the walls a trendy neutral shade like “greige”, which is a warm mix of gray and beige. This color will make a beautiful backdrop behind a white or ivory fireplace surround.
• Paint the room’s trim, molding, and walls the same color. Then have flooring in deep tones of ebony or charcoal.
• Have floor to ceiling traditional style draperies. Use double curtain rods to layer sheer panels inside of your decorative valences and heavy outer curtain panels. Use an abstract print on the valances and curtain panes rather than a more traditional toile or floral print.
• Display your photos on the mantle (or faux mantel) in shiny chrome frames.
• Have white pillar candles placed on curved wooden candlestick with gunmetal finishes.
• Place some fluted white ceramic or glass vases. If your fireplace surround has classically fluted legs, this will help play them up.
• Mount an abstract or modern piece of art inside of a more traditional frame and display it over your corner fireplace.

Make Use of Natural Enhancements

Image source: Laura Burton Interiors

You can use your flooring to help make your corner fireplace even more attractive. Install 12 inch square, honey oak parquet wood tiles, on the diagonal from the corner of the room.

Tie the room together by adding some wood ceiling beams or install a skylight if you can. This skylight will help brighten up the area and add in some natural light. Taken altogether, these changes will give a feel of being in the great outdoors.

All this said, make sure not to overdo it. Adding too much extra décor will become distracting and will lessen the impact of the dramatic centerpiece that is your corner fireplace. You want to keep things simple, natural, and uncluttered.

Here are some more ideas to give the room around your corner fireplace a more natural feel:

• Have some floor cushions, ottomans, or an area rug woven from natural grasses like sisal or jute.
• Place come pictures of natural landscapes on a wall nearby.
• You can offset a rustic iron stand holding fireplace tools with a large vase that holds twisted twigs or dried reeds.
• Place an eye-catching centerpiece sculpture on the mantle. Animals are common choices and you will see a lot of giraffes, elephants, and tall cranes designed for this sort of use. There are also many horses, bears or big cats in action poses used on mantels as well, sculpted so that they are standing on their hind legs to give them a sense of height and interesting motion.
• Fill in any empty space on your corner fireplace mantle with smaller figurines and natural materials like rocks or shells.

Recreate A Classical Look

Image source: Bess Jones Interiors

Try elevating the firebox of your corner fireplace with a set of built-in bench style cabinets that wrap around the corner and extend out several feet along both walls.

You can also include a custom a wraparound top shelf that will extend out from the corner fireplace mantel. To complete the look, wither build yourself or have a custom built for you a wooden mantle and a surround for the fireplace itself.

This look is at its best when you use a mix of both dark and light stains for the wood, as well as a combo of both smooth and rough finishes. The color contrasts and varied textures add depth and create visual interest to the fireplace.

Some more fireplace ideas for this look include:

• Cover the wall that is between the bench style cabinets and the top shelf with Travertino ceramic tiles. These tiles look like stone with a wood-like grain.
• In the space above the shelf, add faux brick paneling made from slices of very thin brick to complete the feel of the space.
• Install track light or recessed ceiling lights. These lighting options will help to highlight the various textures and the sense of depth created along the walls. If you do this, be sure to include ceiling fixtures for more general lighting as well as lamps or cove lights for some accent lighting.
• Decorate the walls and shelving around your corner fireplace with interesting items you’ve found in thrift stores, flea markets, specialty boutiques or yard sales. An eclectic collection of objects from different time periods will make the room seem more authentic. They will seem like keepsakes you have collected from a number of adventures over time.

Have a Kiva Corner

Image source: Giulietti Schouten Architects

A kiva fireplace is one of the best corner fireplace ideas out there. This fireplace design is also known as a beehive fireplace. You find them most often in Southwestern style homes.  The kiva corner fireplace is usually made from the same clay material that was sued to build the walls of the house.

In years gone by, the kiva corner fireplace would have had to be installed by a mason on a solid ground level foundation in order to support its immense weight.

Today, thanks to technology and inventiveness, they can be made from prefabricated kits that contain a square or arched firebox that is connected to a metal chimney pipe.

The traditional kiva beehive shape is then made from a metal mesh lath façade that is covered with stucco or plaster. This new lightweight design means that it is possible to install a kiva corner fireplace in many different places, including on a second story, with much less cost and trouble.

Image source: Lindsay von Hagel

Kiva corner fireplaces are associated with a traditional look. Their origins can be traced back to the Pueblo Indian tribes of the southwestern United States.

However, there are no rules or laws that say you can only have one in a Southwestern home or only decorate them with Native American décor. It’s pretty easy to give a kiva corner fireplace a contemporary twist.

Some great fireplace ideas for décor around your kiva corner fireplace:

• Accessorize the corner fireplace with a handful of select pieces of handmade art, including Ceramic vases, sculptures, plates or pottery.
• A kiva corner fireplace fits right in with hand woven baskets or artifacts carved from stone or wood. These items usually give an African or Pacific Islander twist to your kiva fireplace.
• For a more personal touch, get a custom hand-forged iron fireplace screen. This will also help keep the room safer by keeping embers inside the corner fireplace while keeping pets and children out of the flames.

Ending thoughts on corner fireplace designs

A corner fireplace is an amazing addition to any room. There are so many great fireplace ideas out there that you can quite easily have one be the perfect fit for any style of a room, whether modern, rustic, or traditional. See if any of the cool corner fireplace ideas in this guide can work for your home!