If you want to create a sense of early New England, or perhaps Wuthering Heights, fireplaces with oak mantels are one way to achieve it. There's a reason that interior designers and creative homeowners tend to start with the fireplace in room makeovers. Fireplaces have been a natural focal point since they were used for cooking and heating. Today the most important design feature of fireplaces and mantels is their versatile flexibility throughout the year.

No matter what style your fireplace mantel, the accessories and decorations are a powerful design tool. Most of us, after all, burn fires for perhaps only two or three months of the year. The rest of the time, the fireplace is an opportunity for creativity. Fresh flowers in the summer brighten the hearth. Candle groupings are also a wonderful way to change the look of both the hearth and the mantle. The mantel is also a great showplace for collections of smaller objects, perhaps orchids or painted ceramics. Let your imagination go!

Fireplaces with Oak Mantels as a Design Element

Oak is a versatile wood, no two ways about it. It is hard, durable, and highly figured. It is also readily available, thus affordable. Fireplaces with oak mantels were, understandably enough, the rule rather than the exception. Brick, of course, was the most frequently used material for fireplace facings. As far as the rest of the house was concerned, oak was the most common material used in framing, and beams were often exposed.

Fireplaces with oak mantels of the period might be nothing more than a rough-hewn beam. The houses of wealthier people featured more elaborate fireplaces with oak mantels that were paneled. These were typically very stylized, with the neoclassical look reminiscent of ancient Greece.