How to Decorate a Mantle With a High Back Wall

Paint the fireplace. If the face of the fireplace doesn't appeal to you, think about painting it a vibrant color and the walls around it a color that complements the paint on the fireplace. A fireplace normally functions as a room's focal point; painting it will enhance this appeal.

Hang a gallery of artwork on the wall above the mantel. Ensure that at least one of the pieces, be it a painting, photograph or mirror, is larger than the others in size. In particular, a mirror will add more light to the area, because mirrors reflect the light already in the room.

Provide visual balance to each side of the fireplace if at all possible. In design theory, visual balance means that items that stand opposite from one another have equal visual weight. Visual balance in this case could mean a set of matching built-in bookshelves or double window seats that stand on both sides of the fireplace and help visually anchor the fireplace into the space it stands in. The items flanking the fireplace will help draw the eye downward, which provides some balance and scale to the tall fireplace area.

Decorate the mantel with interesting items, such as vintage toys or items related to a hobby; vary the height of the objects on the mantel. This will provide visual interest to the fireplace. Position short objects, like family photographs, in front of one another with the tallest ones in the back. This shortest to the tallest principle holds true regardless of what you choose to use to decorate the mantel. The more interesting-looking the object, the more it will capture attention.

Pay attention to proportion. Although you can use objects of many different sizes to decorate the fireplace's high back wall, proportion is important. Decorative elements that are too small will become dwarfed by the fireplace's design.

Leave the top half of the wall alone if the fireplace extends high and is lost among ceiling rafters. The rafters will hide a multitude of sins and provide visual interest to the area.