How to decorate a fireplace wall without built-ins

Have you wondered how to decorate a fireplace wall without the expense and effort of built-in shelving? When we first moved into our home, I envisioned beautiful built-in shelves on either side of our fireplace. With a baby and a toddler, working part-time, and not wanting to spend thousands of dollars to have built-ins installed, I ended up waiting on the idea. However, when I finally had a sliver of time to address this space, I decided against built-ins because our fireplace is flush against the wall and built-ins work best if the fireplace is bumped out into the room. Additionally, I wanted an affordable solution and something that I could do myself. In this post, How to decorate a fireplace wall without built-ins, I show you how to create a beautiful feature wall by creating the look of a more substantial fireplace and by adding open shelves.

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The Before Photo

This photo was taken just after I painted the walls a muted blue-grey colour, Sparrow by Behr. Our fireplace was a standard builder-grade fireplace with a simple white surround and grey porcelain tile. We were lucky enough to have the fireplace centered on the wall of our family room. If you have a similar orientation in your home, then the approach I describe here will work without any modifications. However, if your fireplace isn’t centered you can adapt my approach.

The After Photo

This image shows how our family room was transformed by making a few simple changes. This space is also very functional. It’s a space for family movie nights, and the storage units house our large collection of board games and puzzles. I hope you’ll continue reading to find out all the details of how to decorate a fireplace wall without built-ins.

The Scope of the Work

This project could be completed in a weekend and everything is easy with one exception- the crown moulding at the top of the fireplace requires a compound mitre saw and some tricky calculations. You could simplify this part of the feature wall by using a simple trim piece at the top instead.

The components of this project are:

1. Find matching tables for either side of the fireplace. I repurposed some IKEA storage units that I painted in a soft white colour, adding ruched fabric panels to the glass to allow for storage of media and board games. When selecting your tables, choose something that offers storage and that is several inches narrower than the space you have available. I don’t think IKEA carries this exact unit any longer, but if you love IKEA, check out my posts 21 IKEA finds that look expensive or Top 12 IKEA hacks to try now.
2. Apply the shiplap fireplace addition above the fireplace. Check out my easy shiplap tutorial here.
3. Install open shelving above the tables, accounting for TV and/or artwork height. You can read the detailed DIY instructions for the open shelves here.
4. Style the open shelves and fireplace mantle.

The tutorials mentioned in steps 2 and 3 should give you all the information you need to install the shiplap and open shelves.

Styling the Open Shelves

I just recently changed up the styling of our open shelves to transition from a farmhouse style to a slightly more modern style. I also wanted to add a little coastal style to this space and accomplished that through the use of artwork and natural materials. The colour palette of white, pale blueish-grey, and light beige also lends the space a calm, beachy feel. One further goal of this refresh was to add more plants and greenery to this space, and I’m happy with how that turned out.

Left side

To the top shelf, I added a fern in a white pot and a black and white print (a sketch by Brynn W. Casey). For the middle shelf, I placed a terrarium filled with air plants and a pair of white modern candle pillars. To the bottom shelf, I added a whimsical Llama canvas (by Kristin Llamas) and a stack of books with a mini air plant on top. I reversed the orientation of the books to have the book spines at the back, in order to limit the number of colours used in the shelf decor.

Right Side

To the top shelf, I used a coordinating beach print by Brynn W. Casey and a potted umbrella plant. You can click here to read more about my favourite houseplants. On the middle shelf, I deviated from my two-grouping per shelf trend and used three items or groupings. I added a potted rubber plant, a gold-framed photo of my boys, and a grouping of books topped with a white and gold concrete box. To the bottom shelf, I added a grouping that includes a round basket tray, a stack of mini art books, and a few air plants, as well as a pair of white candle pillars.

Balance and Design

I tried to balance the visual weight of the TV with a pair of framed beach photographs by Origin Prints Co. Then, I added a large tray to the top of the table on the right side for storage of a few decorative items.

I wanted the open shelf styling to look fairly organic, but I used a few tricks to keep it looking orderly. The top shelves are fairly symmetrical, containing coordinating artwork and potted plants of the same size and colour. The bottom two shelves on both sides contain a mixture of artwork (A), books (B), candle pillars (C), plants (P), and a few other decorative items. Repeating these few elements creates just the right amount of repetition and contrast. I’ve learned with shelf styling to be restrained- choose 2-4 colours (I used mostly white and green, with small amounts of black, gold, and tan basket colour), and about 5 different “types” of decorative items.

Fireplace

I often use a symmetrical display on the fireplace mantle, but this time I decided to use an asymmetrical arrangement. I placed clear glass hurricane lanterns on either side of the mantle, then deviated from traditional symmetry. Firstly, I added a sculptural cone, some books, and an air plant to the right side. Secondly, I added a smaller sculptural cone and a potted plant to the left side. All of the fireplace decor is white, with the exception of the plant.

Summary

I hope you have enjoyed my post, How to decorate a fireplace wall without built-ins. This arrangement can work well for many homes and is a low-cost weekend project that will seriously upgrade your space. The fireplace wall is visible from our kitchen and breakfast area and makes me happy every time I look.