12 Gorgeous Home Decor Ideas for Styling an Empty Living Room Fireplace

If your fireplace doesn’t work, that doesn’t mean it’s wasted space: it’s an opportunity to get creative with your home decor. There are a number of living room ideas to style an empty fireplace, depending on the rest of your space, decor preferences and the fireplace itself. These 12 living room fireplace decor ideas are guaranteed to turn your empty fireplace into a fun and cozy focal point in your home.

Living room with deep blue walls and fireplace. In front of the fireplace is a bouquet of flowers in a vase on top of a vintage suitcase.

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Select a Simple Vase of Flowers

A chic vase filled with a bouquet of flowers is an easy and stylish way to fill the empty space in front of a cold fireplace. Choosing a seasonal bouquet from a local florist is a great way to incorporate seasonal colours into your decor. A cute vintage suitcase or stack of books under the vase can add height and create dimension.

Modern living room with geometric rug and warm-toned furniture. Inside a whitewashed brick fireplace is a stack of books.

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Show Off Your Literary Collection

If you’re a bookworm or a magazine collector, use your empty fireplace to show off your stacks of books, like Kortney Wilson did in this chic Masters of Flip living room. If you like this look but don’t have enough books or magazines to fill your non-functional fireplace, try a thrift store or secondhand bookstore for some pretty vintage books or magazines.

A white fireplace with a blue rug in front. Inside the fireplace is a large dark green vase.

Lauren Miller

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Opt for Statement Decor

Use an empty fireplace to experiment with statement decor pieces, or to let your favourite bold pieces really shine. You can even pair it with plants on the shelf.

Minimalist white bedroom with fireplace. A potted plant fills the space inside the fireplace.

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Add a Pop of Green With a Potted Plant

Whether you’re a seasoned plant enthusiast or an aspiring plant parent, an empty, non-functional fireplace is a great space for displaying plants. If your fireplace isn’t near a window, opt for plants that tolerate low light well, like a snake plant or ZZ plant.

Chic neutral living room with white walls and beige furniture. The white fireplace is filled with 8 beige pillar candles.

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Fill It With Candles

If your fireplace doesn’t work, why not fill it with candles? Decorative candles are reminiscent of a fireplace’s original purpose and can add interest to the empty space. The uniformity of white pillar candles look great in minimalist spaces like this one, while candles of different colours, shapes, and sizes can add an eclectic touch to colourful, boho-chic living rooms.

Colourful living room with pink-striped walls, a pale pink fireplace and pink velvet couch. Inside the fireplace is a white curtain.

Lauren Kolyn

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Play up a Petite Curtain

Adding a small white or neutral curtain is an easy way to fill an empty or broken fireplace without making it a focal point, as with this colourful Tiffany Pratt living room decor.

Warm, rustic living room with shiplap walls and brick fireplace stacked with firewood.

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Stack up Firewood

It might seem self-evident, but a small stack of firewood can fill an empty fireplace in a way that adds a rustic warmth to your space, as seen in this Joanna Gaines living room.

Bright and airy living room with white fireplace and white furniture. Inside the fireplace is a stack of white birch logs.

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Brighten With Birch Logs

If ordinary firewood isn’t your style, a stack of birch logs gives an upscale rustic vibe to an empty fireplace. The white of the birch adds a pop of brightness that plays well with white fireplaces and furniture, as in this Joanna Gaines living room.

Bright living room with wood ceiling and stone fireplace. A plant with trailing vines sits on the fireplace mantle.

Lauren Kolyn

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Style Your Mantle With Trailing Plants

Another great plant-focused fireplace styling option is to put a trailing or vining plant on the mantle. Golden or marble pothos, English ivy and most varieties of hoyas are great choices.

Dining room with colourful area rug and bright teal fireplace.

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Paint a Pop of Bold Colour

If your fireplace is currently a neutral shade or wood grain, give it a refresh with a bold colour. The vibrant teal on this Masters of Flip fireplace adds a fun splash of colour that turns it into a focal point.

Bright living room with a brick fireplace smeared white. Around the fireplace are a number of plants in various sizes

Lauren Kolyn

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Brighten the Brick

If you have a bright-red brick fireplace, you can use DIY details (like the spackle technique used here) to update the look to better suit your style.

Neutral living room with white walls and light beige furniture. Above the white fireplace is a portrait in a gold statement frame.

Lauren Miller

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Curate an Art Display

Turn your empty fireplace into your own art display. Hang your favourite pieces over the mantle, or fill the fireplace itself with a selection of prints, paintings or other masterpieces.