For a rustic decor, log mantels are ideal. Maybe you have a house in the mountains that just doesn't lend itself to the formality of city or suburb houses. Then again, perhaps you're a traditionalist who leans towards the country cottage style rather than the classic colonial. It's important that your fireplace make you feel at home and be the interior design element that best expresses you and your style.

Fireplaces, after all, have been a focal point of family life and house design since the first ones were carved out of castle walls in Europe in the Middle Ages. Although the kitchen has supplanted the great hall and living room as the activity center of the home, the fireplace remains an important design element. You want it to reflect your style and set the atmosphere for the rest of the house.

Maybe you're lucky enough to have a fireplace in the kitchen. Log mantels there are especially effective, sometimes--depending on your special touch--conveying more utility than backwoods rustic. The fireplace accessories you choose will put the personalized twist to the overall design of the mantelpiece itself.

Accessories for Log Mantels

It's almost impossible to go wrong with wrought iron, especially in fireplace accessories. Depending on the style of the iron itself, an otherwise formal mantel and fireplace surround can be softened and humanized, or emphasized. Low sheen brass--maybe a screen or a few bowls on the mantel--tend to set a formal note. Fresh, dried, or silk flowers always brighten a room. Candles are especially adaptable to log mantels. A grouping of thick candles along a mantelpiece or in the hearth in the summer months is a wonderful design note.