These 20 Fireplace Mantel Ideas Will Warm Your Heart and Your Home
We'll say it once and for all: Stop treating mantel design as a holidays-only kind of endeavor. Sure, Christmas is a chance to go all out with the cherry red pops of color, max out on garlands to your heart's content, and otherwise ensure that Santa has an aesthetically pleasing time at your home. But making your mantel as true to your current design sensibilities (or Pinterest aspirations!) as possible needs to be an all-year pursuit versus something you remember about on the last Thursday of November.
We've rounded up the below ideas—pulled from the ELLE DECOR archives and standout interior designer projects both—to get you all fired up about your upcoming fireplace mantel redesign. There's something here to suit all fancies: whether you actually want to go fancy (rich blue hues and awe-inspiring artwork hanging above), tap into something more Art Deco (as ELLE DECOR A-Lister Hannes Peer did in Milan, with the help of yellow marble), or ditch the fireplace's traditionally rectilinear shape altogether.
Cue your mantel moment!
We’ll say it once and for all: Stop treating mantel design as a holidays-only kind of endeavor. Sure, Christmas is a chance to go all out with pops of red, max out on garlands, and otherwise ensure that Santa has an aesthetically pleasing time at your home. But making your mantel as true to your current design sensibilities (or Pinterest aspirations!) as possible needs to be an a year-round pursuit.
A particular trend of note in the world of fireplace mantels is to make them say something. In other words, designers are increasingly choosing to be bolder and more expressive with how they doll up their fire decor. Designer Sarah Tract, founder of Sarah Tract Interiors, suggests exercising a bit of restraint, though. “Go bold with the stone and minimal with the design. Let the stone speak for itself and the beauty shine through with a simpler and cleaner design,” she tells us.
We’ve rounded up the below ideas—pulled from both the ELLE DECOR archives and standout interior designer projects—to get you all fired up about your upcoming fireplace mantel redesign. There’s something here to suit all fancies, whether you actually want to go fancy with rich blue hues and awe-inspiring artwork hanging above; tap into something more Art Deco, as ELLE DECOR A-Lister Hannes Peer did in Milan; or ditch the fireplace’s traditionally rectilinear shape altogether. Get ready to bring on the heat!
Blue Statement Mantel
Picasso, in his Blue Period, would approve of this Atelier Davis–designed mantelpiece. Its highly pigmented, glossy blue color provides the perfect backdrop for all the art scattered throughout this family room, but especially the Michi Meko painting right above the hearth.
Mirrored Mantel
Mirrors are a common choice to put above the mantel—doubling the room, at least visually, and letting the gaze travel upward. Common does not have to be boring, though. Take a page from the ELLE DECOR A-List debut talent and Uchronia founder Julien Sebban, who listened to his clients’ request to make this Parisian apartment look like gemstones and ran with it. This mirror is more than what meets the eye, inset as it is, with layers of Japanese gold leaf in emerald and aquamarine tints.
Prim and Posh Mantel
This Louis XVI mantel is the definition of dazzling. Its veiny, brown marble plays up the surrounding furniture’s similar color scheme. Do it like ELLE DECOR A-List firm Cullman & Kravis did in this New Jersey home and further elevate the mantel situation via fancy sconces and a neoclassical Italian chandelier.
Plaster-Powered Mantel
Why settle for a simple mirror or painting over your mantel when you can instead install a massive wall plaster with Greek motifs on it? This one, by Léon Georges Baudry from the 1940s, adds instant drama to the space and contrasts exceptionally well (if we say so ourselves!) with the black firebox brickwork.
Dramatic Mantel
“The original mantel let the room down, while this is more of a sculpture,” designer Colette van den Thillart tells ELLE DECOR, referring to her inventive sunburst fireplace surround pictured here. The level of drama and surrealism is further heightened by the ’70s-era Willy Daro tables and boomerang-shaped bench nearby. All this is to say: Go big or go home with your mantel redesign!
Geometric Mantel
Both the funky geometric objets d’art on this mantel and its Giallo Siena marble (that yellow color!) contribute to the undoubtedly Art Deco feel of the living room, designed by ELLE DECOR A-Lister Hannes Peer. See if you can extend the hue of your mantel outward, with an area rug that matches it seamlessly.
Foliage-Filled Mantel
Leave it to ELLE DECOR Titan Kelly Wearstler to create the leafiest mantel design in this mag’s history (which we loved so much, it also appears in our Christmas-specific mantel article!). Here, she employs Spanish moss, magnolia, coyote bush, and more plant varieties, allowing them to naturally hang over the fireplace and breathe life into the space.
Alcove-Flanked Fireplace
The mantel here looks like it pops out, doesn’t it? That’s all because of the 18-inch-deep alcoves that flank it. Designer Ashley Lavonne Walker painted the walls an intentional clay green to further underscore the primary bedroom’s sculptural properties while making sure the fireplace continued playing a starring role.
Modern Mantel
A thread of sophisticated calm runs through Augusta Hoffman’s NoHo apartment, seen in the living room’s neutral color scheme, custom curved sofa, no-frills Perle Fine artwork hanging above the fireplace mantel, and, of course, the mantel itself. There’s nothing over the top about its brickwork—painted a barely-there gray—or its shape, but that’s the whole point.
Neoclassical Mantel
It’s hard to find a place for your eyes to land in the grand salon of designer Jean-Louis Deniot’s French manor, and that’s a good thing. Let us point out a key detail in this vignette, however: the stately Louis XVI Carrara marble mantel, topped with intriguing antiques and backed by a room-heightening mirror. P.S.: Did you spot that barometer above the mantel? We could write a whole feature piece on it.
Fireplace Statue Moment
In this Philip Vergeylen–designed London abode, gilded touches abound. Besides the eye-catching orchids, Charles X chandelier, and lacquered walls in the library, there’s an element that truly lingers in memory long after admiring the scene: the matching bronze satyrs that look as if they’re holding up the entirety of the marble and bronze mantel. How’s that for classical elegance?
Heavy-on-the-Artwork Mantel
If you want to incorporate art into your fireplace mantel design but in a more creative way than, say, buying something at Anthropologie, consider doing what Suzie de Rohan Willner—CEO of the British fashion and home-goods brand Toast—did in her country house. She put up a collage portrait of herself, made by her daughter, on the living room mantel—thereby infusing the room with priceless personality.
Textured Mantel
This mantel is masculine, rustic, and modern all at once. Contributing to the refreshing mix of attributes is the intentionally rough-edged fireplace surround, metal sconce by Ralph Lauren for Visual Comfort, and the framed collection of antique paper aspirin boxes hanging above it all. The latter is most certainly a conversation sparker in designer Sean Anderson’s Memphis bungalow.
Depth for Days
Remember when we said mirrors over mantels work to multiply the space’s square footage? This fireplace—in designer Jean Liu’s petite Upper East Side studio apartment—is kind of the epitome of that. To achieve this breathtaking effect, pair a mantel mirror with another one on the opposite wall. Some believe this is bad on a feng shui level (trapped energy; a portal for supernatural entities to pass through), but, decor-wise, it’s a win in our book.
Tiled Mantel
Designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard’s Morocco-inspired Hollywood home spares no details (or shyness, for that matter). It’s bold, it’s heavy on the patterns, and it brings out the ELLE DECOR A-Lister’s penchant for “exotica.” His choice to tile the fireplace mantel in striking black and white—just like the trellis ceiling overhead—is one we approve of.
Whimsical Mantel
This mantel arrangement in a Roman penthouse is as adorable as they come. First off, the sculptures by Giuseppe Palermo provide an undisputed element of whimsy (we could stare at them, lovingly, for hours). More important, though, the antique bronze mantel is surrounded by custom bookshelves, which integrate it into the room at large while flaunting the owners’ scholarly status.
Sleek Marble Mantel
Interior designer Sarah Tract likes to keep it clean when it comes to dressing up mantels with plants, photos, or trinkets. “Save those elements for other furniture in the space, such as coffee tables, bookshelves, nightstands, and dressers,” she advises, gravitating toward mantel designs like the one here, which benefits from a simple form that lets the veiny marble material do all the talking. If you can’t decide between a work of art or a TV above the fireplace, maybe you don’t have to. In her projects, Tract achieves the best of both worlds with Samsung’s the Frame—half masterpiece, half essential tech item.
Floor-to-Ceiling Stone Mantel
In Ghislaine Viñas’s Pennsylvania home, the den is the focal point of activity, where the family gathers around an original stone fireplace in colder seasons. With that floor-to-ceiling surround, we’d be there on a daily basis too! A shelf creates added space to showcase unique sculptures—and did you spot that hanging monkey? In a nutshell, we’re obsessed.
Glory to Green
Green is big right now. It always has been, but recently it’s popped off in the form of Sherwin-Williams’s 2025 Colormix Forecast, Charli XCX’s Brat summer trend, and beyond. This Schuyler Samperton–designed fireplace—painted in Farrow & Ball’s Studio Green—taps into both the timelessness and urgency of this color. Bonus points if you choose to reuse the hue in other rooms, like Samperton did via the kitchen’s cabinetry and custom island.
Screened-in Stunner
Fireplace screens are essential for keeping flames at bay, and in some cases—as happened in this James Huniford–designed New York cottage—they can provide the ideal opportunity for tasteful artistic expression. Not to say that the graphic wall art and vintage leather armchairs here (sooo symmetric!) aren’t expressive enough, but the custom brass fireplace screen really seals the deal.
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