Dawn Matthews | Nov 12, 2024
10 Eco-Friendly Fireplace Styling Ideas to Warm Up Your Space
15 Minute Read
Are you looking to style your fireplace beautifully, while keeping it sustainable? In this post, we’re sharing our top 10 ideas for making your fireplace a cosy focal point in your living room. All of our ideas in this post are sustainable, so you can create a gorgeous effect without it negatively impacting the environment.
Add a solid wooden mantel
There’s nothing that frames a fireplace like a natural, rustic mantel made from solid wood. We’ve talked about them extensively on our blog before, as well as sharing styling tips for your mantel. When it comes to choosing and buying a mantel made from sustainably sourced wood, make sure you’re getting the right colour wax finish for your space by ordering a colour sample pack before committing.
As with all our handmade shelves and furniture, if you need a bespoke size, we can help! Simply choose the mantel size that is closest to the size you need, then tell us in the order notes the size you’d like us to cut it to – or you can get in touch to chat about it before you make your order.
Use reclaimed wooden accessories
Incorporating reclaimed wooden accessories around your fireplace adds warmth and character to your space. Look for unique items like vintage candle holders, rustic wooden bowls, or handcrafted picture frames made from repurposed wood. These pieces bring a sense of history, with textures that pair perfectly with the cosy ambiance of a fireplace.
Breathe life into your fireplace with potted plants
We’ve talked about styling your home with plants before, and there are so many benefits having plants in your home, aside from the fact they look wonderful year round. Reducing stress, improving air quality, and even helping with mental illness – there’s no reason not to add potted plants to your fireplace.
Of course, the other great reason to have potted plants is that they flower for significantly longer than cut flowers. If you’re not green-fingered, then look for low maintenance house plants such as spider and snake plants. That said, orchids and peace lilies aren’t as difficult to look after as you might think, and with the right care, can look stunning as they flower again and again.
Where should you put your potted plants? Well, they’ll look gorgeous on your mantel, but if there’s enough light in the room, then you can arrange them on the hearth to act as a visual focal point instead of a fire.
Get a sustainable glow with eco-friendly candles
On those evenings that it isn’t quite warm enough to warrant lighting a fire – or perhaps you just can’t use your fireplace – you can get a warm comforting glow by lighting candles. The most sustainable candles are made from natural waxes, such as beeswax, coconut, and soy, with a cotton wick, and naturally, organic is better. If you’re looking for rustic, eco-friendly and dye-free candles, our range of candles is made from organic beeswax in perfectly muted tones.
Place your candles directly in the grate where you’d build the fire (be certain there isn’t anything in the chimney that will accidentally catch fire!), or place them around the hearth or on the mantelpiece. If you’re looking for an even more rustic look, then perhaps an aged brass lantern would set the tone perfectly.
One last thing about candles – as always, never leave them burning unattended, and if you have children, pets, or vulnerable people in your home, then consider switching to LED candles.
Add a personal touch with artwork or photographs
This idea doesn’t take much to expand upon! Whether you’re an artist yourself, or simply appreciate a great painting, you can’t go wrong by adding artwork to your mantel or chimney breast. The great thing – and what can also be the most frustrating thing – about choosing art is that there is no single correct answer to what is the right piece for your home. So, if you find a painting, print, or even a sculpture that you love and it doesn’t clash in the wrong way with the rest of the space, then go for it.
If you can’t choose a piece of art, or you don’t have the time to discover what style of art you love, then find photos you love and print them. Most of us have hundreds of photos that we never look at on our phones, and they aren’t expensive to print and display in frames – or to have the really great shots printed on canvas. If you have a photo that you love but that the colours aren’t quite right, play with filters; black and white hides a multitude of sins.
Get natural texture with stone or clay vases
Potted house plants are lovely, but when you’ve been gifted a bunch of cut flowers, you want to see them while they look great, and there’s no better place than your fireplace or on your mantel. A vase made from natural stone, terracotta, or clay is the perfect choice to contrast with your bright blooms – and flawlessly complements a dried flower bouquet.
Our range of decorative vases has some gorgeous options to choose from – and if you’re styling your mantel, we’d recommend our set of three decorative vases to build the decoration around.
Use vintage mirrors to bounce light around
Vintage mirrors are often overlooked in our opinion – they often develop a delightful patina that means they look totally in place in rustic, farmhouse, and industrial style homes. Hanging on the chimney breast to reflect light around the room, styled on the mantel, or placed behind the hearth, vintage mirrors look great as part of your fireplace decorations.
Add rustic storage with style
This idea should give you no end of inspiration for styling your fireplace and mantel. There’s nothing like being able to hide clutter in plain sight – and so look for decorative baskets, crates, and boxes to adorn your mantel and fireplace. Cute vintage jewellery boxes, natural handwoven bowls, and even cigar boxes can all sit atop your mantel as styling pieces.
If you’re looking for fireside storage – perhaps for your natural firelighters or kindling – then a woven basket made from natural seagrass is a great choice.
While vintage is absolutely a great way to go when looking for rustic storage, you can always buy sustainably made items like those in our homeware range if you can’t find quite the right thing.
Bring the coast in with driftwood
There’s nothing quite like a piece of driftwood that has been bleached by the sun and shaped by the sea. It makes us wonder where it started, and where it has been since! Placing driftwood on your mantel or in your fireplace adds natural character, and you can guarantee that nobody else will have a piece quite like it. If you’re looking to create subtle beachy vibes, add glass bottles filled with sand alongside simple candles around your driftwood.
Driftwood looks great as part of many décor styles, and it is sustainable – so if you’re looking for a unique, original piece that can add style to your space without having an environmental impact, this could be it.
For those of you that live inland and can’t scour the shores regularly enough to find what you’re looking for, you can find absolutely stunning pieces of gnarly wood in pet shops that specialise in exotic pets.
Get soft texture with woven wall hangings and tapestries
If you’re decorating a living room that needs a bit more of a cosy feel bringing into it, then consider hanging a woven wall hanging or tapestry on your chimney breast. Soft textures above your fireplace create a soothing focal point that draws people in and adds to those lovely autumn and winter hygge vibes.
Woven wall hangings and tapestries, especially those in natural fibres like wool, cotton, or jute, create a relaxed, earthy feel that complements the warmth of a fireplace. For the most sustainable pieces, look for those that are made from recycled or eco-friendly materials.
Our Final Thoughts
While we focus on our fireplaces the most in the winter, especially at Christmas, when we hang stockings from the mantel. But the great thing about styling your fireplace – as with styling your shelves – is that it can be done seasonally. When you’ve put all the Christmas décor away, your fireplace will look just gorgeous with the early season daffodils as they come in – reminding us that warmer, sunnier days are on their way. In the summer, you might decorate it with vintage postcards, bunting, or nautical themed items, and of course, in the autumn, pumpkins and pine cones are must-haves.
Styling your fireplace sustainably means you can refresh it each season with natural finds and eco-friendly pieces, keeping it cosy year-round. Start with a natural wood mantel, then layer in unique, rustic items that add warmth. When you’re happy with your setup, tag us on Instagram at @bensimpsonfurniture.
