Fireplace

Deau retained original details, like the stone fireplace in the living area and the Jean Prouvé lamp mounted onto it. Vibrant throw pillows by Nathalie Du Pasquier for Hay offset the neutral sofa and armchairs from Habitat and the Moroccan rug. Vintage English occasional and coffee tables stand at the room’s center. Ceramics and objects from Guillaume Bardet, Jonathan Adler, and Ferm Living accent the space.

The master bedroom’s fireplace boasts a black slate hearth set in white-painted masonry.

“The finished materials are intended to be neutral and timeless, primarily employing woods and white walls,” says Gurney. “Color was introduced in juxtaposition to the neutrality.” When the sun isn’t shining, a Montigo gas-burning fireplace provides warmth next to neon WGS stools by Gallotti&Radice.

Interior designer Anne Sophie Goneau gave an apartment in a former factory a bright makeover. The minimal gas fireplace is from Ortal, acting as a focal point in the room, complete with integrated shelving.

Blogger and stylist Annaleena Leino Karlsson has designed her 1950s farmhouse to have a mostly white interior. Her workspace is next to a rustic brick and stucco fireplace, which is adorned with cacti and decorative objects.

Tigg Coll Architects took a new approach to a straightforward town house renovation and expansion in London. The home’s rear extension has its own personality, with with pivoting glass doors, sharp red support beams, and a wood-burning fireplace. The overhanging concrete plinth acts as a hearth or, as Tigg imagines it, a sort of contemporary inglenook. Wood piles neatly between the beam and wall. The fireplace, a Stovax Riva 2, is flanked by a Lampe Gras wall lamp; firewood is cleverly stored in the narrow space between the fireplace and the red support beam, creating a fun moment of practical texture in the room.

A club from the Fiji islands is mounted on the wall of the fireplace that divides the living and dining rooms. The dining room—furnished with two Cab chairs by Mario Bellini for Cassina, a pair of Cowhorn chairs by Hans J. Wegner for Johannes Hansen, the Barcelona Table by Mies van der Rohe for Knoll, and a Y61 stool by Alvar Aalto for Artek—has no windows, but lightwells on either side of the chimney provide brightness. Another design by Wegner, the Chair, peeks out from the dining room.

The panoply of tile continues in the living room, which is anchored by a second fireplace that Karen wrapped in oval Heath tile. The architects tactically preserved the home’s most worthwhile features and modernized the rest, such as the vinyl windows they replaced with natural milled aluminum.

Architect George Bradley and his husband, Eddie Baba, renovated a 1941 house in San Francisco. Tiles from Heath Ceramics surround the Ortal Clear 130LS fireplace. The white ceramic logs are by Klein Reid (but of course can be replaced with real firewood!), and the firewood storage continues the same dark horizontal band that contrasts with the light-colored fireplace cladding.

White was charmed by the original fireplace with a built-in planter—so much so that the new open floor plan is centered around it.