Designing a Fireplace Feature Wall: Tips and Ideas

A feature wall is a fireplace with the whole wall designed around it: the finish, the mantel or the lack of one, the television, the lighting and the storage. The fire becomes the reason the room is arranged the way it is. The wall is easy to get wrong because it is decided by four trades and one appliance manual. This is how we plan one, in the order the decisions have to be made.

1. The appliance sets the wall, not the other way round

Every fireplace ships with a clearance table: how close combustible framing, drywall, wood cladding and a mantel may sit to the unit, and how high a shelf or a television may hang. A linear gas fireplace with a clean face wants a non-combustible finish across its front and a clearance zone above it. A traditional unit with a hearth wants a mantel at a set height. A wood insert in a masonry fireplace keeps the old opening and its own hearth rules. Choose the unit first, then draw the wall to its table. We bring the manual to the in-home visit and mark the zones on the wall with tape so you can see them at full size.

2. Choose the finish for the fire zone, then the rest

The band around the opening is where the finish has to be non-combustible; the rest of the wall is free. That split is the trick to a wall that looks expensive without being expensive.

• Stone and brick veneer. Eldorado Stone profiles — stacked stone, ledge, brick — laid on the full wall or on a floor-to-ceiling column behind the fireplace. Veneer is the most forgiving finish over an old masonry face and the one we quote most often.
• Large-format tile or porcelain slab. Flat, modern, and right for a linear gas unit. The joints and the edge trim decide whether it reads as a slab or as a bathroom wall; a mitered edge or a metal trim, chosen at the drawing stage, makes the difference.
• Plaster or painted drywall with a non-combustible band. The quietest wall: a cement-board and tile band around the opening, drywall everywhere else, one paint color. Works when the fireplace is the color, as with a black steel front.
• Steel panels and barn boards. Stoll’s steel panel systems and Magra Hearth’s wall boards clad an existing wall without demolition, which matters in a finished room.
• Wood cladding, outside the clearance zone. Shiplap, slats or a reclaimed-board wall is fine where the manual allows combustibles; inside the zone it has to stop and something non-combustible has to take over.

3. The television question

A television above a fireplace is a heat question and a neck question. Heat first: the manual sets how high above the unit a combustible object may hang, and a television counts; a non-combustible mantel or a deflector shelf lets it sit lower, and a linear unit with a cool-wall design lower still. Then the neck: a screen whose center sits much above eye level from the sofa is tiring to watch, which is why the lowest television is usually the best one. If the wall cannot bring the screen down, put it on the adjacent wall and let the fire have the feature wall to itself — a fireplace does not need company.

4. Light it like a fireplace, not like a kitchen

A feature wall wants three layers of light: the fire, a wash on the finish (a recessed fixture or a strip that grazes stone or slats from above), and a low lamp or two in the seating. What it does not want is a bright downlight straight above the mantel, which flattens the texture and washes out the flame. Put the switches on dimmers and wire the wash separately from the room’s general light.

5. Storage and the ends of the wall

Built-ins on either side of the fireplace — shelves above, cabinets below — turn a fireplace into a wall, hide the equipment and the remote, and give the eye somewhere to stop. Keep them a few inches back from the finish around the opening so the fireplace reads as the front layer. A wide wall with nothing at the ends looks unfinished no matter how good the stone is.

6. The hearth: raised, flush or none

A raised hearth gives a seat and a place for a stack of wood, and it lifts the fire to sofa height. A flush hearth keeps the floor clean and suits a linear gas unit. A wall-hung electric or a clean-face gas unit may need no hearth at all. A wood-burning fireplace or insert still needs its hearth extension by code, so that decision is made for you once the fuel is chosen.

Three walls we build often

• The modern great room: a 54- or 72-inch linear gas fireplace, porcelain slab from floor to ceiling, a shallow steel shelf, television on the side wall, wash lighting from a ceiling slot.
• The 1920s brick house: the original masonry opening kept, a gas or wood insert with a new face, the brick painted or limewashed, a cast stone or concrete-beam mantel, built-ins in the alcoves.
• The basement family room: a direct-vent gas or an electric fireplace, stacked-stone column, a long low shelf that doubles as a ledge, cabinets under the television.

The gallery shows rooms we have built; the surround ideas post covers the band around the opening in more detail; the mantels and surrounds page has every mantel, shelf, hearth and panel we carry.

Questions we get about feature walls

Can I put a TV above my fireplace?

If the manual’s clearance above the unit allows it at a height you can watch. A non-combustible mantel or a deflector lets the screen sit lower; a linear unit designed for a cool wall lower still. If the numbers put the screen too high, the side wall is the better home for it.

Do I have to use non-combustible material on the whole wall?

No — only inside the clearance zone the manual draws around the unit. The rest of the wall can be drywall, wood or anything else you like. The zone is what we mark on the wall at the in-home visit.

Can a feature wall be built around the fireplace I already have?

Usually. An old masonry fireplace takes an insert with a new face; a builder-grade gas unit can be replaced in its opening; veneer and panel systems go over an existing face without demolition. What is behind the wall decides the options, and that is what the visit establishes.

Who does the wall — you, or my contractor?

Either. We design, install the fireplace and its venting, and build the surround; when a job calls for a mason or an electrician we bring in one of a small, hand-picked network we have worked with for years, and we run the job. If your own contractor is building the wall, we give them the clearance drawing before they start.

Start with the wall, not the catalog

Bring a photo of the wall and its width to the showroom at 1202-B 75th Street in Downers Grove, or book a free in-home estimate. We will measure the wall, read the manual for the unit you like and draw the zones on it. The written quote covers the fireplace, the venting and the wall as one project.