How To Arrange a Room With a Corner Fireplace

Giovanni Valle is a licensed architect and LEED-accredited professional and is certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB). He is the author and managing editor of various digital publications, including BuilderSpace, Your Own Architect, and Interiors Place.

A fireplace is usually the centerpiece of any well-designed room. However, what happens when the fireplace is tucked away in the corner? A corner fireplace can be a hugely beneficial design feature that, if you manage correctly, will result in a beautiful, fashionable finish.

Here’s how to design a room with a corner fireplace:

Do an inventory of furniture going into the room.
Decide on your style and atmosphere.
Choose a main focal point.
Plan the furniture placement.
Create a secondary focal point.
Add aesthetic finishes.

Keep reading to learn more about designing rooms with a corner fireplace. I’ll explore the steps to follow to finish with a well-shaped and organized space. By the end of this article, you’ll learn more about the tricks needed to take advantage of a stylish corner fireplace and you’ll have a good idea on how to proceed with your new plan.

1. Do an Inventory of Furniture Going Into the Room

The first step in designing any room is to figure out what you want to use the space for and what you want in the room. If your new room with a corner fireplace is going to be your main sitting room, you’ll likely want a TV and sofa in the room at the very least. However, if the new space is to be used as a dining area or games room, your requirements will be very different.

Once you’ve decided exactly what your new room will be used for, it’s time to figure out how much furniture you’ll need and any other added features like paintings or sculptures that you want to be included in the design.

After you’ve figured all of this out, you’re ready to continue with the design. Hold off on buying any new furniture just yet, as you have a few critical aspects to consider first, but more on that later.

2. Decide on Your Style and Atmosphere

Deciding on what style you want for your new room is an essential step. Do you want the design to be elegant and stylish, or bold and brash? You can also choose a contemporary style that follows modern trends. Whatever your style preferences are, you need to decide between continuing with the plan.

Here are a few styles that may suit the atmosphere of your home or provide you with inspiration for your new room:

Minimalist – Minimalist designs have massively grown in popularity. A minimalist design contains a few more features than what’s necessary. You’ll also find a lot of straight lines and often contrasting colors to provide a sleek and streamlined appearance. Rooms with a minimalist style and a fireplace in the corner often have a tall fireplace to draw attention and complete the atmosphere.

Modern – A modern design will use modern materials such as plastics, glass, slate, or even concrete. In recent years stamped concrete has grown massively in popularity for its elegant finish and durability. It’s also vital to remember symmetry when attempting a modern approach to design as it’s often integral to the finish.

Classic – Classic designs for a room with a fireplace use traditional materials like bricks, wallpaper, and wood to provide an elegant and classy finish. Large fireplaces are also standard in a classically styled room and complete with a mantelpiece for you to place framed photos of loved ones.

The above suggestions are just a few of the more common ways that people decide to style rooms with corner fireplaces. Have a look online, and you’ll find thousands of examples of stylish finishes and designs in rooms with a corner fireplace literally.

3. Choose a Main Focal Point

The fireplace is naturally the main focal point of a room. The main focal point is a term used to describe where people’s focus will naturally face when in the room. That’s why in most rooms with a fireplace not in the corner, the furniture is usually placed facing the fireplace.

Televisions are another item that naturally draws a lot of focus in a room. As a result, you’ll usually find televisions beside or above fireplaces, as they’re both the same focal point in the room. However, you don’t want yourself and everyone else facing a corner when enjoying your new space.

Therefore, you’ll need to shift the main focal point away from the fireplace in the corner towards a more centralized position. To do this, you can move the television to a wall adjacent or even a corner on the wall connecting to the fireplace. This point will be the main focal point of the room.

However, some people don’t watch or own a television, or your room may be used for a different purpose. If this is the case, you can choose a mirror or painting as the main focal point. You could also choose to retain your corner fireplace as the main focal point; however, this can make life difficult when it comes to organizing furniture in the room.

Another critical point to note is the fact that a room can have more than one focal point. However, you should choose a central focal point for the rest of the room to be organized around. Just make sure that you choose wisely as the main focal point can set the tone and mood for the rest of the room.

4. Plan the Furniture Placement

Arranging furniture for rooms with a fireplace in the corner can be a confusing task at first. When the fireplace is in a central position, arranging furniture is a straightforward task, mostly because that’s what you’re typically used to seeing. However, a fireplace in the corner can almost act as a fifth wall, which can be confusing.

You’ll want to configure your furniture around the main focal point in your room. To do this, you can place a soft facing the main focal point with either another sofa or two seats adjacent to the focal point. When the main focal point is the fireplace in the corner, this can make things look disorganized.

This happens as humans enjoy parallel lines and symmetry when it comes to design. As a result, sofas that don’t run parallel to walls can be offset. You can correct this by using furniture with curved edges or finishes. This has a psychological impact that makes the rooms feel better aligned.

Curved coffee tables or round seating options don’t need to run along walls to fit in perfectly. Instead, you can place your furniture around your fireplace without the room appearing disjointed.

If your television is your main focal point, you can arrange your furniture along the walls to face the TV. It’s crucial that you take the position of the fireplace into consideration. Choose seating options that don’t block off the fireplace, as you’ll use the fireplace as your secondary focal point in the next stage of the design.

You’ll want to avoid adding seating or furniture in front of the fireplace, as this could create an imbalance in the room, or make it feel smaller and disconnected. It can also be a fire hazard.

5. Create a Secondary Focal Point

Earlier, we established the main focal point of your design. Your two best options are either the fireplace or television. Whichever point you choose, the other is going to now become a secondary focal point.

Establishing a secondary focal point is important as it prevents features from looking out of place in a room. If you align your furniture to face the TV and ignore the fireplace in the corner, the result appears to be a sloppy design. That’s why you create the secondary focal point.

One of the best ways to use your fireplace as a secondary focal point is by placing small furniture in front of it. You could use some stools or even cushions on the floor. This ensures that the fireplace fits in with the surrounding aesthetic. It also provides the room with an alternative seating option when entertaining guests.

Another way to establish a secondary focal point is by using coffee tables. If you place a coffee table close to the fireplace or television and some searing nearby, people will naturally pay more attention to that area. This, again, ensures that the secondary focal point is established and nothing looks out of place.

Sculptures, paintings, and mirrors are more effective ways of drawing attention to an area in your room design. A beautiful painting or intriguing sculpture will attract attention and interest. Similarly, you can also opt for a large, standing lamp or a houseplant.

As a result, more focus will be placed where the art piece or mirror is located, establishing a secondary focal point.

Any of the above tips and tricks are effective ways of drawing attention in a room. This can allow you to get the best of two focal points, which in turn results in a well-designed and carefully planned finish that will surely impress any guests or visitors to your property.

6. Add Aesthetic Finishes

The suitable aesthetic finishes can make all the difference to rooms or even entire properties. Well-chosen aesthetic finishes can make a lasting impression on guests and visitors as well as massively enhance the atmosphere.

The right aesthetic finishes may even attract more attention from potential buyers if you wish to sell the property. More attention results in more money when it comes to making the sale. Therefore investing in the right finishing touches can be highly cost-effective in the long run.

Once you’ve mapped out your design and chosen your furniture, it’s time to figure out the small finishing touches that can genuinely transform your design. There are an almost endless variety of finishing touches that you can apply to your new room. Here are a few crucial aspects to consider:

Wall Finishes – After you’ve figured out what furniture will go where and what’s going into your room, you’ll need to decide what finishes you want on the walls. You can choose a tile finish, wallpaper, or the most common choice; paint.

Whatever material you decide is best to suit your needs, style, and atmosphere can have a massive influence on the end result. A beautifully designed room with a poor choice of paint color can alter a room’s mood or put-off guests and visitors.

Flooring – Flooring can have a massive influence on any room. The type, quality, and design of your Flooring choice can have tremendous impacts on the aesthetics. When choosing a type of flooring, there are more factors to consider, including wear and tear, price, what the room is going to be used for, or even the temperature in the room.

For example, a tile floor may sound like a great idea until you’re walking across it barefoot on a cold winter’s night. Or you may want concrete flooring as it’s incredibly durable and versatile when it comes to shaping, color, texture, and design. You may need to consider how your trim, crown molding, or baseboards complement the flooring and wall finishes, too.

Lighting – Lighting is another essential element of designing a room. If the room you’re creating has plenty of natural light, then you may not need to focus on adding more. However, if your room isn’t naturally illuminated, adding more lighting can transform the room’s atmosphere.

You can do this by adding more light bulbs or brighter bulbs to the ceiling, or you can add lamps to set a more relaxing atmosphere. Some people enjoy a room lit up by a fireplace, with little or no other lights on in the room. Other people like gadgets and install smart light bulbs that can be controlled by apps on your devices.

Whatever your preferences are, there are many great advantages to good lighting in any room.

Final Thoughts

When designing a room with a corner fireplace, it’s integral that you follow some crucial steps to ensure a precise finished result. It’s important to remember that your fireplace doesn’t need to be the center focus of your room.

Another tip to keep in mind when deciding on which furniture to place in your room, remember that people feel comfortable sitting in well-aligned furniture. This isn’t easy in a room with a corner fireplace, so choosing round and curved edges may be best. Hopefully, you’ve learned some valuable tips to help you design rooms with corner fireplaces.