Decorating A Living Room With A Corner Fireplace

A living room with a fireplace is an asset in any home. It provides warmth during the winter months and also makes for a chic focal point.

If you have a living room with a corner fireplace, even better. But figuring out your furniture placement around a corner fireplace can be a tricky design challenge. This is a common design challenge in single-family homes, and is common all the way from Los Angeles to San Antonio interior design schemes. Where do you put your sofa? Should the fireplace be the main focal point? What about the TV? While it all depends on how you want to use your space, a corner fireplace presents a "fifth wall" that needs to be taken into account in your living room layout.

For some guidance, we've designed one living room with three different corner fireplace layout ideas to show you some possible setups that are practical and stylish. Find out more below!

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Layout #1: The Sophisticated Family Room

This layout is designed to be a family-friendly TV space that still has an elevated look and feel. While the focal point is on the TV wall, the corner fireplace acts as an extension to that and serves as an equally central visual element in the room.

When it came to arranging furniture around a corner fireplace here, it came down to balancing out the L-shaped formation of the fireplace and the TV all. That meant floating a sectional that also helped to delineate and frame the seating area into a rectangular gathering spot. To round out this layout, a reading chair is pulled in to help anchor the corner fireplace. This is one of our favorite (and the easiest) corner fireplace ideas that helps incorporate a fireplace into a living room seating area.

The Key Design Elements:

A sectional is essential. There's no debating between a sofa or sectional with this layout. By anchoring your seating area with a sectional, you create visual balance because the sectional faces both the TV wall and the corner fireplace at an angle. This makes the fireplace feel more part of the room's layout and design.

Decorate around the hearth. Since the TV wall is the main focus of this layout, you want to define the fireplace area so that it's equally noticeable. The best way to do this is to define the corner fireplace and the area around it with inviting decor. Here, a mirror and a plush armchair both help draw the eye to the fireplace surround.

Bookend the space. Just as the balances out the corner fireplace, adding a console table behind the sectional will help clearly delineate your seating area. This also creates visual balance with the media stand along the TV wall. The result is a seating area that's inviting and feels like a cozy yet tailored space of its own.

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This is a great layout for you if…

You want a family room that's well-designed and not overly casual (because your kids are now off to college or live away from home)
TV watching and using your fireplace are everyday activities in your life.
You want a defined living space that feels cozy but still has a focus that's not just a TV.
Your ideal living room is elevated in look and feel but is also perfect for casual lounging.

Layout #2: The Curated Sitting Room

In this layout, the angled fireplace is the focal point. Think of this as the corner fireplace layout where the centerpiece of the room is the hearth and the furniture placement emphasizes that.

By arranging a chesterfield sofa directly opposite the fireplace, it gives this seating area a contemporary curated look that is one of our favorite layout ideas for a corner fireplace. The overall setup, with the armchair and benches along the edges of this seating area, makes it an instantly cozy and intimate space for relaxing and conversation alike. Here, it's all about creating a living room space that is equal parts formal and airy with modern industrial furnishings and art that are none too precious.

The Key Elements:

Choose a substantial sofa. Whether it's a modern blue velvet sofa or a tufted leather chesterfield, you want your main seating to be as visually bold as the fireplace opposite it. Round out the living room by floating furniture to face the center of your seating area, which will help direct focus to the corner fireplace.

Punch up your mantelpiece. With the corner fireplace as the centerpiece in this angled living room layout, you want to make sure it stands out. Hang a bold graphic artwork or an abstract painting above your mantelpiece to visually direct attention to the fireplace.

Fill your vertical space. Because your fireplace extends all the way to the ceiling, balance out its height by decorating your walls with tall-standing bookcases and art. This is an easy way to draw the eye upward as well as to warm up the seating area with color and visually interesting objects.

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This is a great layout for you if…

You use your living room as a cozy place to relax, gather, and entertain all at once.
A contemporary and slightly industrial-minimalist design approach and aesthetic suits your style.
Your home has a separate family or media room for TV watching and use your living room more as a sitting room for quiet relaxing and unwinding at night.
You want your living room to also be a display space for your favorite artwork and objects.

Layout #3: The Open-Flow Living Room

If you're after a spacious and airy feeling living room where the furniture placement isn't centered around the corner fireplace, this is an ideal setup. The corner fireplace is not the focal point in this layout, where the furniture is arranged against one end of the open living space.

In a living room with a fireplace in the corner, you can ultimately decide whether you want to incorporate the hearth to look and feel like a part of your seating area. And it can be a little separate if you want to, as in this living room design. In the end, you get a living space that still feels relaxing but has a more open atmosphere.

The Key Elements:

Mix in different seating. Whereas the previous two layouts focused on one main seating furniture piece, this encourages a diverse mix. Pull in a pair of leather armchairs and matching white ottomans to balance out a casual slipcovered sofa. By arranging these pieces away from the fireplace, it opens up the room. Meanwhile, the chairs and ottomans can be pulled near fireplace when it's lit.

Spare your fireplace. You won't come across too many corner fireplace ideas that tell you to keep it spare and minimally styled. But what you do use to decorate your fireplace, be it a raw-wood shelf mantelpiece or modernist ceramics, you want to make sure it makes a tall statement that adds to the blank vertical space in the room.

Let materials lead. Use earthy materials as the overarching theme in your space. Opt for tan leather, natural woods, crisp white linen, grainy woods, and smooth pottery to connect your seating area with your corner fireplace. This way, even though they are two delineated as two zones in your living space, the materials lend visual cohesion.

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This is a great layout for you if…

You have a busy family household and the living room is the central gathering space, which means more open space the better.
The fireplace is only used during the winter and colder months, otherwise, it's more decorative.
You enjoy an actual living room space that's not about TV viewing or formal lounging but actually is catered to everyday living and kicking back.
Modern-rustic design is your idea of ultimate comfort and style.

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