50 Modern Fireplace Ideas You Never Thought Of

Curling up by the fire typically rustles up images of large, rustic stone hearths with crackling logs. But, these traditional fireplaces don't quite align with modern design enthusiasts.

While fireplaces are technically meant to be warm and cozy, there's no reason they can't also be cool and contemporary.

To keep things cohesive with your current decor style, we've rounded up 50 modern fireplaces that offer the best of both worlds. They're homey yet sleek, and decorative yet functional.

Whether you're looking to update an original structure or add one to your contemporary build, here's proof you don't have to sacrifice cozy vibes in the name of clean lines.

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Rethink Your "Kindling"

Alvin Wayne Interiors

Forget the logs, both faux and real fireplaces will look supremely modern with a different kind of kindling sitting in their fireboxes. Painted sticks, crystals (like selenite logs), and plants all make a statement.

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Superimpose a Fireplace on Beadboard

Arbor & Co.

For an ultra-modern look, try installing a fireplace over top of a feature wall instead of the standard brick or stone flue. White beadboard or paneling, for instance, makes for a bright, modern background that stands out from traditional aesthetics.

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Embrace All-White

Calimia Home

To prevent a modern room from feeling too edgy, lean on white for the walls and fireplace. An all-white palette manages to open up a space but make it feel cozy at the same time.

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Go for Clean Lines

Hannah Tyler Designs

Ornate plinths, corbels, and mantels make fireplaces feel much more vintage-inspired than modern. To retain the minimal looks of most modern versions, opt for a structure that's clean and streamlined with few super detailed components.

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Maintain a Monochrome Theme

Arbor & Co.

You can't go wrong with black and white in a modern household. Keep that same palette running throughout your fireplace, too. A black firebox placed against a white surround and mantel is a gorgeous way to maintain the theme.

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Work With Angles

The Home Consultant

If a low ceiling or odd angle initially was messing with your design plans, use it to conjure up the perfect modern fireplace. A slant or steep angle can lead to a statement hearth that feels right at home in your living room.

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Add Contrast with Dark Stone

Brophy Interiors

Modern spaces are often grounded with dark accent colors. In a light and airy contemporary home, choose a surround in a deep, saturated stone or brick to cut through a neutral palette.

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Add Intentionally Imperfect Textures

Morse Design

To give some character to your fireplace, trade in perfectly sleek tiles and painted wall for a metal or stone surface that has unique markings and textures. It gives an organic feel to the entire room and softens textbook modernism.

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Simplify the Mantle Decor

Whittney Parkinson

Too many ornate decorative objects and detailed pieces can turn a fireplace and living room from modern to more traditional or vintage-inspired. The key is too choose mantel decor that speaks to you but do so in moderation. A few intricate objects can still feel right in a modern room if they aren't too many.

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Incorporate Surprising Colors

Gray Space Interiors

Modern isn't synonymous with monochrome. There are plenty of options for adding a splash of color to modern spaces, even through a fireplace. Choose an analogous tile color to contrast against walls (like light blue against teal or navy or pink against maroon). This creates a statement wall and feature and stands out from the black and white fireplaces of the world.

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Swap a Black Chimney Breast for Navy

Brexton Cole Interiors

Black is classic, but navy is a step up. Choosing a deep blue chimney breast over a black one still retains the sleek finish, but it softens the stark contrast between white walls. It's a great way to add a little color, too, without incorporating anything too bright or saturated.

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Be Discerning About Details

Calimia Home

Traditional touches can feel modern if they're incorporated in limited quantities. For example, intricate detailing on a mantel or surround can stay if it's all the same color or used sparingly. This gives it some texture and personality without completely changing the style of a room.

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Add a Gold Fire Screen

Desiree Burns Interiors

Nothing adds a luxurious touch quite like metallic details. A gold fire screen is a pretty method for making a monochrome and modern fireplace shine. Extra points if it matches other shiny accents around the room.

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Opt for Wood Paneling

Arbor & Co.

Scandinavian touches blend beautifully with modern details, especially when it comes to a fireplace. Wooden paneling is a cozy but chic backdrop for a black-and-white firebox and surround.

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Color Block the Space with a Fireplace

Gray Space Interiors

In white, modern rooms, fireplaces can serve as the perfect opportunity to add depth and dimensions. Create a color-blocked wall with the addition of a charcoal gray surround and chimney. It provides a focal point and breaks up the space.

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Mix Warm and Cool Tones

Morse Design

Permission granted to break some design rules. Rather than maintaining the same temperature of color throughout, use your fireplace as a chance to stand out. A cool gray hearth really jumps out from a warm wood chimney breast.

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Incorporate Shiny Tiles

@amberpiercedesigns / Instagram

Without the right textures, minimal spaces can feel bland and one-dimensional. To maintain the neutral energy of a modern fireplace while still infusing some personality, look for interesting tiles. Swapping matte for shiny subway tiles instantly boosts this facade and moves light around the room.

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Rethink Traditional Fireplace Tiles

The Home Consultant

Red brick fireplaces or those covered in river stones lean too traditional. Instead, take the color or material and translate it in a way that feels modernized. That could be thin slices of red tile that look brick-like or a few stones embedded in a surround.

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Frame It in Black

Leclair Decor

What better way to frame a white room than with a black firebox and surround? This punctuates a living room and gives a jumping-off point for other black accents around the space, whether it's a framed print or decorative bowl.

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Infuse a Splash of Green

House Nine Design Studio

If you're seeking out ways to add color that go beyond a couch or paint, consider the fireplace. Rather than beige, gray, or white, a slab of green rock can be the unique touch a living room is missing.

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Designate It as the Accent Wall

The Home Consultant

Accent walls are usually limited to gallery and painted walls. To think outside of the (fire)box, tap your fireplace as the main event. A wall of tiles, mounted lights, and a chic, minimal log burner is all it takes to create a show-stopping space.

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Maintain Monochrome but Switch the Texture

Kate Marker Interiors

Monochrome modern rooms can still be multifaceted. A fireplace is a great area to add a little bit of contrast—even if it's all the same color. One section of the fireplace could be white tile and another portion could be white wooden paneling. Or you could have one half as stucco plaster and the other half stone.

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Decorate the Firebox

House Nine Design Studio

Usually tiles are placed on the surround or chimney breast. To make a modern fireplace catch the attention of dwellers and guests, opt for tiling the firebox in a unique pattern or with a bold color of tile.

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Welcome in a Modern Organic Style

Light and Dwell

A modern design style might feel too sleek or unwelcoming for some, but it can easily be softened with an "organic" touch. This subtler take on a modernism uses earthier textures to warm a room. For instance, you could choose a cream-colored stone fireplace that feels old-worldly but still perfectly fitting.

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Opt for a Mid-Century Style

@nudeandthenovice / Instagram

Maybe your idea of modern leans towards mid-century. When that's the case, seek out '60s and early '70s-inspired fireplaces, many of which tend to be freestanding appliances. It'll suit the tastes of anyone looking for a switch-up from wall fireplaces.

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Play with Different Shapes

Emily Henderson Design / Photo by Sara Ligorria-Tramp

Use the colors and shape of a modern fireplace to inform your decision when designing the rest of a room. A square black fireplace always looks more interesting when it's dotted with a circular mirror and adjacent to a curved bookshelf in the same colors.

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Aim for Clean and Minimal

Design: Sandra Fox Interiors, Photo: Amy Bartlam

Clean lines and minimal decor are the touchstones of modern decor. This super simple fireplace carved into a bright white wall is textbook modernism.

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Update the Hearth

Photo: Amy Bartlam

If you're working with an outdated hearth, a couple of simple updates will modernize its look. A subway tile facade and glass doors feel fresh and look right at home in contemporary spaces.

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Think Outside The Box

Courtesy of Devon Grace Interiors

Fireplaces have long donned a simple square design, so switching things up instantly makes it feel contemporary. This shorter, narrow shape that doubles as a credenza feels like an upgrade from the basic fireboxes of yesteryear.

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Invest in a Sculptural Mantle

Whittney Parkinson Design

You wouldn't buy a work of art that doesn't boast depth and visual interest, so why settle for a fireplace that lacks those exact elements? This sculptural mantle fits into this space like another piece of art.

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Opt for a Fireplace That's Flush With the Wall

Courtesy of Devon Grace Interiors

We love the no-fuss elements of modern design, and this fireplace embodies the best of its minimalistic charm. Fitting this glass firebox flush into the wall makes a statement without all the frills.

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Install a Marble Hearth

Courtesy of Devon Grace Interiors

A white and black marble with graphic veins running throughout is the most modern material you can find in nature. Incorporate it into your contemporary living room in a big way, like the marble fireplace in this beautiful space.

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Buy Into Black and White

Design: JDP Interiors, Photo: Amy Bartlam

There's no color palette more modern than the achromatic pairing of black and white. If you're working with an older chimney, you'd be surprised by the impact a can of paint can make. Give your whole room and mantle a fresh white coat and accessorize with black accents for a contemporary upgrade.

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Highlight Your Fireplace as the Focal Point

Design: Yael Weiss Interiors

If your fireplace is the focal point of your living room, make it look like one. The slatted wall surrounding this chimney makes it a beautiful centerpiece for your entertaining space.

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Get In Line

Courtesy of Pulp Design Studios

If geometric shapes and interesting angles are your design aesthetic, lean into them in a way that feels modern. Opt for a beveled frame around your fireplace rather than a straight boxy type.

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Cut It Out

Design: Abitare Studio, Photo: Koe Van Damme

If you blink, you might miss it—but in the best way. This fireplace in this living room is carved out of this architectural configuration using negative space for a take on an indoor fire pit.

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Choose a Big and Tall Feature

Charbonneau Interiors

If you're lucky enough to have high ceilings, we say, use them to your advantage. Why cut the potential of your fireplace short (we mean this literally and figuratively) when you can elongate the structure to reach your high ceilings? Visually, it'll make your room look taller and your chimney more modern.

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Test Out a Modern Chevron Pattern

@devon_grace_interiors

A chevron-pattern tile framing your minimalistic fireplace makes an original chimney look modern, especially in this mix of dark gray tones.

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Choose Sleek Concrete

Courtesy of Charlie Interior Design

What better way to juxtapose a warm and cozy fire than with a cool concrete overlay? This cement living room melts our modernist hearts to stone.

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Wow with a Dual Fireplace

@cornerhousecreatives

There's nothing like a dual-sided fireplace that can be enjoyed in two rooms at once. This minimalist design is carved out of a single wall with openings on both sides, making it visible from each one.

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Design a Minimal Mantle

Laura Brophy Interiors

The decor around your fireplace is just as important as the design of your fireplace itself. This minimal setup, including an oversized print, and graphic, black mantle shelf only make this mantle look even cooler.

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Leave Some White Space

@cornerhousecreatives

While it's common for some to camouflage their fireplaces, this one unapologetically takes the focus by way of negative, making it look even more incredible. Refraining from hanging up art or styling a mantle makes this living room look super modern and minimal.

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Play with Proportions

Ashley Montgomery Design

Most fireplaces mantles hit about eye level, but this modern design makes a shorter mantle height look totally contemporary. Using the space above the mantle to fit an oversized canvas is a smart design move.

25 Faux Fireplace Ideas That Will Shine in Any Room

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Keep It Open

Courtesy of Devon Grace Interiors

Fireplace doors and screens can make the look of your design feel outdated. Rather than covering up your modern fireplace, keep it open and exposed for a more contemporary feel.

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Include Ceramic Spheres

Courtesy of Chelius House Of Design

Burning firewood is so last year; these days, ceramic spheres are all the rage in the contemporary home decor space. Not only do they look cool, they provide a modern flare while also being eco-friendly and fire-safe.

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Put It Off-Center

Design: Emily Henderson Design, Photo: Sara Ligorria-Tramp

The truth is designing your dream home comes with its restrictions. Whether it be structural constraints or layout limitations, you can't always have a fireplace positioned smack-dab in the middle of your space. Not to fret—this living room is proof a firebox in the corner boasts the same effect.

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Go for an Electric Fireplace

Courtesy of Laura Brophy Interiors

Wood-burning fireplaces can be dangerous, messy, and difficult to maintain. Try a modern electric version that lights with the flick of a switch sans smoke and flames. And if heat is your main concern, these produce the warm and toasty feel of the real thing.

The 7 Best Electric Fireplace Heaters of 2024, Tested and Reviewed

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Make it Multifunctional

Courtesy of Will Brown Interiors

If you have a wood-burning chimney placed in an awkward part of your space, build around it and use it to your advantage. This custom build doubles as a room divider for this open-concept modern loft.

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Go Big

Courtesy of Laura Brophy Interiors

Just because your fire is confined, that doesn't mean you can't play with the proportions of your fireplace. While the burning area is limited, you can still experiment with the size of your fireplace opening, like the extra-large alcove in this space.

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Use a Lustrous Stone Surface

Design: Leclair Decor

Installing a high-shine stone from floor to ceiling further establishes this fireplace as the living room's focal point. Furthermore, pairing the stone with the black fireplace makes it feel totally at home in its little built-in alcove.