Bradly Schimmel DDS
This feature wall may seem like a straightforward solution to the issue of multiple focal points (TV vs. fireplace), but many times it isn’t. Stop what you are doing and insist that your builder, architect, or designer draws a floor plan with furniture of your living room that shows the depth of the fireplace wall.
In two new construction homes I’ve worked on recently, the person who created the house plans (not me!) designed the window wall to be symmetrical with equal amounts of drywall on either side.
So, once the fireplace was framed out and the built-in cabinetry installed, we had two feet of drywall on the left side of the windows and about 6″ visible on the right. I bring this issue up because clients often have a vision of how a room will look based on the floor plans and the inspiration images they’ve gathered.
If the floor plans aren’t fully developed with all of the elements before construction starts, they might be disappointed when it doesn’t look the way they pictured it in their head. I have been surprised at how passionate people are about incorporating a raised hearth into their fireplace design.
I am not a huge fan because they jut out into the room and make furniture placement difficult.
My lack of grace aside, a hearth creates a fresh set of problems for mounting the TV over the fireplace, as if there weren’t already enough (more on that another time). I like to have the same amount of stone (or other fire retardant material) around the top of the fireplace as the sides if possible, so that’s another 6″ at least. That is pretty high considering the optimal TV viewing height is eye level when seated – around 30-36″.
If you are going to mount your TV above the fireplace, making it the focal point of the room, consider buying one that looks fabulous all the time, like the Samsung Frame. I love tall ceilings, but 18′ is really high and can often feel cavernous depending on the room proportions. There are several options but my main objective is always to keep the room feeling balanced and not top-heavy.
I personally dislike built-in cabinetry that results in a shelf for dust to collect especially if it can be viewed from the second floor.
In the pair of images above, I’m showing two options that I created for a client’s living room fireplace wall. In the top version, we eliminated the shelf and styled the wall above the base cabinets with art.
He or she incorporated space to recess the built-ins, avoiding the shelf issue, and maintaining symmetry on the window wall. We chose to extend the marble surround high enough to feel proportional in the space but not all the way to the 18′ ceiling. If you don’t want your TV over the fireplace, then it will need to be off to the side, hanging on a wall or mounted inside a cabinet.
If your room isn’t very wide, then you will need to offset your fireplace to one side to provide the appropriate amount of space for the TV. If you don’t think this through carefully before your foundation is poured, it might not even be possible to shift the fireplace left or right in the room. I love this asymmetrical design by House of Jade Interiors, especially the bench seat detail.
By using the same white on the entire wall, they created a strong sense of unity even with the varying materials. This is another asymmetrical design by Studio McGee that solves the TV issue beautifully. The television is at the optimal viewing height, and the built-in cabinetry below has mesh fronts so that the remote can talk to the components. The fireplace wall has symmetrical built ins on both sides which are wrapped with drywall, solving the dust-collecting shelf issue.
If I were designing another iteration for this fireplace wall, I might bring the drywall down to the tops of the built-ins. For a strongly symmetrical person, this fireplace wall idea probably wouldn’t work.
Insist on interior elevation drawings and furniture floor plans before you break ground. Your designer can provide drawings to help you understand how material placement and color affect the balance and proportion of the wall.
