How interior designers make unused fireplaces focal points in their homes

An open fireplace or a solid fuel stove can be brought to life with a few aesthetic touches when not in use during the summer months

David O'Brien's home, left, and Sarah Twigg Doyle's interiors, right.

Here we are at the end of June still putting the heating on and hauling in blocks from the shed to feed an open fire or stove. It’s a job I usually furlough in May at the latest, not needing to return to it until we get near the end of September.

But there’s one thing I miss about a fire over the summer months and that’s the flickering flame and how it gives life to a space, drawing the eye to it and inviting seating arrangements and conversations around it. Somehow it feels that what would normally be the focal point of the room has lost some of its value, aesthetically and comfort-wise.

Our beloved fireplaces are so intrinsic to our feeling of cosiness and wellbeing, something central heating can never compete with, even owners of houses built in more recent times without fireplaces in the interests of sustainability are proving our love for the fireplace isn’t diminishing in the slightest. 

A redundant fire grate can be reinvented as book storage, filling an otherwise black hole in a room. Picture: Ikea

Many are sourcing discarded ones and giving them a new lease of life attached to the living room wall simply for the visual effect, a focal point and the comfort of nostalgia.

Even new owners of period houses whose disappointment at finding the original fireplaces have been ripped out are not adverse to seeing what might be left lurking behind a blocked up chimney breast. 

Where once there was a fire place, the remaining aperture can be used for candles and plants or form a backdrop to a styled coffee table. Picture: M&S

A chat with the neighbours can prove useful in getting a sense of what might be hidden, awaiting discovery.

If it turns out there’s no Victorian cast-iron beauty awaiting the great reveal and you have only the firebox, it still has potential to be a focal point by getting creative and filling it with logs for an interesting look, or even a stack of books. “It’s somewhere for the eye to go,” says stylist Sarah Twigg Doyle of Retwiggd Interior and Event Styling.

Sarah Twigg Doyle added a vintage fire surround to a blank wall in her living room to give it a focal point, styling it with LED candles and plant life.

Sarah's  home in Bray, Co Wicklow, came with a boxed-in gas fire which she removed leaving behind a blank wall. “I live in a B-rated house and we don’t really need the added heat of a fire but I did want the focal point of a fireplace so I found a mantel on Facebook Marketplace. "In summertime it’s the perfect place to bring in summer flowers from the garden and to move plants to that would be on window-sills in winter. 

"I have LED candles sitting in the hearth. On evenings when it’s too cool to be outside they add a bit of magic in the fireplace and they’re remote controlled so there are no safety issues.”

Solid-fuel stoves can be as equally bleak as an empty fireplace in summer, not being the most attractive things in the home at the best of times.

Raising a solid fuel stove in David O'Brien's home, leaving space beneath for logs, gives a design feature to its installation styled with plant life and a vintage coal scuttle.

David O’Brien, interior designer and creative director at RJ O’Brien Construction, Cork, decided to install one in his contemporary residence, which was a finalist in RTÉ’s Home of the Year.

He cleverly made it a design feature by raising it off the ground onto a platform with storage underneath for wooden blocks.

"I try to keep styling my stove area pretty simple and really only change it up two or three times a year," he says. "I have an antique copper coal scuttle which I picked up at a Crosshaven car boot sale and a peace lily sitting in a vintage brass plant pot which sit there all year long. 

"In spring, once the temperature starts to increase, I give the stove a good clean out, and pop in some pillar candles so you can still get the real fire glow in the evenings but without the heat.”

The design feature mitigates the black-hole effect when not in use, but like Sarah, David also looked to create character with a fire surround which he installed in a different part of the house.

The entrance lobby of interior designer David O'Brien's contemporary home.

"When designing my home, I had a little Victorian fireplace installed in my entrance lobby,” he says. “It’s a nod to period properties which often had a fireplace beside the front door to act as a warm welcome for guests. Mine is a faux fireplace as there’s no chimney but I usually have some scented candles lighting inside to create a similar effect. 

"At the moment my go-to candles are Jo Malone's Lime, Basil and Mandarin candles, perfect for summer.”

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