apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Big fat pillars make a wonferful fire effect in any non operable fireplace.

Put your TV in the opening. Get a video of the Yule Log for parties.

I've got 3 inoperable fireplaces in my house (I wish I could light the one in my bedroom--how cozy!) and I've had big tropical plants in them. Currently I have wine bottles of various colored glasses that I have made into candle holders and other bottles into oil lamps for a scented though small fire.

What about something like these?

Clean and simple when not in use, e.g. no logs to gather dust and cobwebs, and a somewhat more substantial flame than a candle or two would offer.

Domino featured solutions for this exact "problem" a few months ago. u should look @ their website. By the way, that pic of your fireplace is gorgeous! I don't see any need for improvement! The domino article featured a fireplace just like yours -- they painted the inside with a dark brown lime paint to add to the depth.

Wait, what? You can't burn wood? I'd like to learn more about this and Google isn't answering...

Oh, and when I had a non-working fireplace I bought a fireplace candleholder at the end of winter. Not too creative but it was simple and cheap.

i always liked putting a bunch of candles in mine and lighting those when i wanted a "fire." it was a very warm look. go for it! you could have simple white ones or varied colorful ones depending on the rest of the room.

According to my architect, you can't renovate a fireplace to be wood-burning any longer in the City. You can burn wood if you've already got one. Of course since he told me this, I've heard from other people that they've relined old fireplaces and are burning wood happily. So who knows? But to save money, we've decided to just leave them alone.

Thanks Sydney, all three mantels are beautiful original marble from when the house was built in 1868. We're very lucky.

I've always hated faux fireplaces when I see them on design shows. If I couldn't afford to convert them to gas, I'd remove them and decorate the space the way I wanted.

Ah, thank you for clearing that up! That makes so much more sense than what I thought.

Huh. You know, you could make a wine rack and put it in there...

a pile of large, smooth stones(this sort of shape, but larger):
http://www.beachpebbles.com/products.htm

or a pyramid of GIANT pine cones: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blindambitionblog/2429638715/

We have a similar non working fireplace in our front room we use as the office / art room. I have an oversized vintage flat round ceramic dish filled with colored pencils, a ceramic owl candle lantern thing, and an oversized mercury glass ornament in there and they look great together. You could pretty much stick anything visually interesting inside!
Plants would also work - too seventies for some folks i know.

domino search.
http://www.dominomag.com/galleries/2008/08/cheap_tricks_18

(yuck)
http://www.dominomag.com/galleries/objects/accessories/accents/blue0

http://www.dominomag.com/galleries/objects/accessories/accents/mantels14

more (wow some are funky)
http://katie-d-i-d.blogspot.com/2008/06/fireplace-scapes.html

It's scarcely original---but I have grow lights high inside the fireplace, and plants sitting on the floor. We never turn off the lights so it's a great night light.

The firebox of the fireplace pictured is way too small to have ever burned wood, so you're not missing an historical feature. More likely there was a coal stove in there. A gel fire, candlepots, plants, books, or a sculpture are all good uses for the niche, after it's been cleaned up a bit with a fresh coat of dark paint.

I would install bookshelves.

Most brilliant of all is the photo accompanying your question! I love the utterly simple design of the bright red flames. The pink question mark would have to go, and it might be funky to backlight the flames with a red light bulb....

In addition to all the other ideas, I would start with a good deep cleaning of the inside, and give it a good even color (I don't know if you can paint them) something dark. Add some art to it too (if you have seen Sleepy hollow with Johnny depp, the archer, or something like this http://www.awartistblacksmiths.co.uk/images/gallery/Art-Deco-fireplace-no3.jpg)

some candles in front of a bright brass object would give fun shadows and reflections.

It probably wouldn't work in a traditionally decorated apartment, but if the white walls in the photo are a clue that the architecture is just a background for a more straightforward contemporary decor, you could go to a neon studio and have some neon flames made.

Use two or there colors of red/orange & orange, and have them made to flicker. This cartoonish approach means that you won't even have to hide the transformer, and if there's no power nearby, so much the better, because you can have the shop wire the thing with a heavy, Safety Orange cord so it can snake across the floor long to the nearest outlet.

And if you don't do this, I'm gonna do it, because I do have a traditional decor, and this will be just the thing to lighten the over-dignified mood of my 7-foot wide Edwardian wooden mantel.

Magnaverde.

Mirrored tiles on the inside pillar candles = so much better than a wood fire.

I have a fake fireplace too, and I put 3 different-sized birch pillar candles in it. I got them at Crate and Barrel, but they seem to have discontinued them. They're sort of like these http://www.wrapables.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=C51804 (but without the pinecones, of course). I like the simplicity of it. My fireplace also drips if it rains hard, so I can't put anything like books or wood in it.

We have a fireplace we seldom use (and our city is also talking about banning wood fires). But putting candles in an empty fireplace is just too cliche. So I came up with the idea of framing a photo of a fireplace fire, a forest fire, or even an old painting of hell (depending on how edgy you want to be) in a simple frame and putting the framed picture in the fireplace in place of a real fire, perhaps putting the picture on an iron picture stand. Unfortunately, my wife has far vetoed the idea for our house. But perhaps someone else will like the idea . . . .

i saw these two fireplace solutions while surfing this morning:

little potted plants
emmas blog. scroll down to the Sam Moller post, photo, bottom left
http://emmas.blogg.se/

and this on nytimes - what is it exactly?
it's certainly unique!
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/08/07/garden/20080807-EMMERICH_9.html

Mine already was covered in the front, so I just retiled it with white subway tile. I think it looks great, but it would fill in the fireplace.

http://baltimorerowhouse.blogspot.com/2008/04/hungarian-bookshelves-subway-tile.html

Magnaverde, that idea's brilliant! Right down to the heavy safety orange cord. Thanks for sharing your thought!