20 Fireplace Hearth Ideas to Make Your Home Cozier (2024)

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Ashley Chalmers

Ashley Chalmers is a lifestyle expert and writer with over a decade of experience traveling the world and translating her adventures into decor. She specializes in writing about farmhouse decor, small space organizing, and urban living. Ashley is also the co-founder of The Lazy Travelers blog.

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Updated on 12/02/23

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20 Fireplace Hearth Ideas to Make Your Home Cozier (2)

The word “hearth” is commonly used as shorthand for the heart of a home, traditionally symbolized by a central fireplace. Because of this, a fireplace hearth is sometimes misunderstood as the general area around the fireplace.

But a hearth is a precise term for a specific element: the usually brick, stone, or concrete floor of a fireplace, which often extends partially into the room to protect hardwood floors and carpets, or to create a ledge on a raised fireplace.

Your choice of hearth material, finish, and color will have an impact on your fireplace design and decor. Depending on the size and layout of your hearth, you can leave it bare; use it as a base for fireplace tools, accessories, and firewood storage; or style it with decorative objects.

From rustic to farmhouse to traditional, modern, and contemporary, check out these fireplace hearth ideas in a range of styles and materials for inspiration.

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Add Firewood Storage

Add functionality to a fireplace hearth ledge with a firewood holder. This raised painted brick fireplace ledge from blogger Ursula Carmona of Home Made By Carmona is topped with a DIY firewood holder that makes it easy to throw another log on the fire, and doubles as decor when the fireplace is dark.
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Show Off Vintage Finds

Use your hearth as a platform for favorite vintage finds, like this styled space in the home of Paul Middlemiss, founder of Merchant & Found.
“Decorate with collections of items—vintage and otherwise,” he says. Focus on adding interest with colors, textures, and varying sizes.
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Paint It Green

If your fireplace has a brick hearth that extends out into the room, consider painting it.
This slightly raised brick home office fireplace hearth from Hayley English Interiors is painted dark green to complement the botanical wallpaper on the walls surrounding the corner fireplace.
The brick arch around the firebox was painted the same color for a cohesive, nature-inspired look.
See Also
Elevate the Hearth: Explore Fireplace Mantel Ideas with 3D Design Apps - HomeByMe 30 Best Fireplace Mantel Ideas and Designs To Brighten Up Your Home - InteriorSherpa These 50 Fireplace Mantel Ideas Will Make Your Living Room the Coziest Spot
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Add Color

Contrast cool gray hearth tiles with a painted pink mantel to update a non-working fireplace, like this Victorian living room in London from Pl Studio.
Style the hearth with stacked books and head vases full of flowers, and decorate the empty firebox with an eye-catching decor object for a playful look.
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Add a Decorative Screen

If you choose to paint your fireplace in a bright all-over color, decorate the hearth with an ornate screen that will help to camouflage the smoke-darkened firebox floor.
This colorful neo-Victorian living room from Dazey Den is topped off with a decorative brass peaco*ck fireplace screen.
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Try Terracotta Tile

Square terracotta tile suits both traditional and modern spaces. This living room from interior designer Alvin Wayne features a modern fireplace with a white-painted firebox filled with multi-colored decorative logs.
A raised terracotta tile hearth ledge is styled with a stack of books and a vase of flowers.
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Keep It Simple

Pair a highly decorative fireplace with a neutral hearth to keep the design from looking too busy.
Angel O'Donnell kept it simple with a solid black hearth that allows the decorative tiling on the fireplace surround and carved mantel to steal the spotlight.
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Mix Old and New

Update a traditional fireplace with a coat of black paint, colorful tiles on the surround, and a sleek poured concrete or solid stone slab fireplace hearth.
Angel O'Donnell styled this simple black hearth with a potted plant for an effortless feel.
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Use Matching Marble

Create an elegant, seamless look by using the same stone on the fireplace mantel, surround, and hearth.
This Art Deco-inspired bedroom from Emily Henderson Design has a glamorous black-and-gold marble fireplace with a small matching hearth.
The mantel is styled with modern objects to add contrast.
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Style With Fireplace Tools

Style an all-black fireplace hearth with a freestanding rack holding both practical and decorative vintage tools and accessories, like this modern rustic space from Michelle Berwick Design.
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Keep It Light

A simple hearth in a light color adds balance to a busy fireplace surround. In this colorful London living room from Studio Peake, a white fireplace with a graphic modern black-and-white tile surround is finished with a simple white marble hearth left bare for an airier feel.
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Keep It Minimal

If your fireplace is bold and textured, keep decor objects to a minimum, like this painted white stone fireplace from Amy Leferink at Interior Impressions.
The fireplace hearth ledge is wide and sturdy enough to function as extra seating, with a built-in niche on one end for storing firewood and displaying decor objects.
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Style With a Tall Vase

Create a minimalist statement on a streamlined fireplace hearth with a single piece of decor.
This tall painted brick midcentury modern fireplace from Home Consultant is styled with a tall white vase filled with branches to take advantage of the ceiling height.
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Fill the Hearth With Art

A non-working hearth is the perfect excuse to get a little creative. We love this look by Black Lacquer Design, filling the hearth with artfully arranged framed photographs.
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Style With Plants

Style a rustic fireplace hearth with plants in woven baskets for a boho-style feel. Sara Toufali of Black and Blooms chose a selection of plants of varying heights in mismatched baskets to add color and a green element to the hearth of a brick and stone fireplace.
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Add Midcentury Modern Color

If your fireplace design includes a slightly raised firebox that isn't flush with the floor, you may find yourself confronted with a detached hearth in a different material.
Dazey Den chose to cover this midcentury modern home fireplace hearth in a color block pattern that echoes the painted wall details to create a kitschy and colorful vintage look.
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Turn It Into Simple Storage

A non-working hearth can be a great storage solution. As seen in this project by Calimia Home, a little woven basket goes a long way—and, to add extra coziness, consider filling it with a few throw blankets.
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Use Patterned Tile

Give a period fireplace hearth and surround a makeover using patterned tile. Brexton Cole Interiors complemented a black-painted wood mantel in this 1920s Tudor home living room with a black-and-white patterned tile surround in a star motif that feels both vintage and modern. The same tile was used on the fireplace surround for a bolder finish.
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Use Something Sculptural

If decorating a hearth is all about creating visual interest, then this design by Brophy Interiors shows how something as simple as decorative spheres can get the job done—especially against the eye-catching pattern of the mantel itself.
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Style With Objects

Balance mantel decor with a few decorations on the hearth floor for a balanced look.
This decorative all-white fireplace from Emily Henderson Design includes a casual display of stacked magazines and a tall vase that balances the candles, art, and books on the mantel.