Creating the perfect media wall fireplace for your home
You may have seen a media wall fireplace pop up on your Facebook or Instagram and thought, “Ooo, I’d like one of those”. But how do you go about building the perfect media wall fireplace for your home?
We explore this big trend in home heating, outlining what you need to consider when designing your own!
What is a media wall fireplace?
In its simplest form, a media wall fireplace combines a fireplace with a television.
Media wall fireplaces started to appear in the late-2010s when flat-screen televisions became widely affordable. Rather than sitting the TV on a unit and taking up floor space, homeowners started mounting them on the wall. The best wall happened to be above a pre-existing fireplace, and the Media Wall was born. This was only the beginning!
With the evolution of electric and gas inset fires offering more efficient heating and a variety of contemporary and traditional styles, Media Walls Firewalls grew in popularity and creativeness.
Homeowners started building dedicated walls and chimney breasts to host their fireplace and televisions in ways that expressed themselves and complimented the style of their home and living spaces.
How to create a media wall fireplace
Before you start taking a hammer to any walls, unless experienced in home renovations, we always recommend speaking to a local professional who can help you with your project.
We’ve provided our guide below outlining the steps we take, allowing you to understand the process, prepare any questions you may have, and get started with the fun stuff – design!
Remember, this should be an enjoyable process that creates the new centrepiece in your home that you can cherish for years to come.
As part of this process, we recommend keeping a Design and Specification Sheet to help you record the essential information for your project. We have a free template for this which you can download here!
Inspiration and design
Media Wall Fireplaces can come in all shapes and sizes, accompanied by all sorts of features and finishes. The best place to start is to think about your style preferences and what fits in with your home.
Make a list in your Design & Specification Sheet!
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself:
- Is your living space more contemporary or traditional?
- Would you like a big display or something more subtle?
- Would you like to build functionality into your media wall fireplace?
- Would you like to connect other gadgets, such as speaker bars, Apple TVs, games consoles, etc.?
Once you have your list, jump in and start searching and pulling together ideas for your media wall fireplace.
Scan home interior magazines, check out our supplier’s downloadable catalogues, or you can find sparks of inspiration all around the internet. Please take a look around our Pinterest for one! You can create your own project board or get the Pritt Stick out and make a scrapbook!
The wall
It might not be the most appealing topic, but we don’t want to get you excited if you don’t have a suitable wall!
Remembering that your television and fireplace will sit within the wall space, standard practice is to build a stud wall that comes out into your room. Much in the same way a traditional chimney breast would. It may take up a small portion of your floor space, but nothing more than a television stand would have. Of course, you might be building big as part of your design!
At Fire Surround Centres, we typically create stud walls by building a wooden or metal frame and covering this with plasterboard. As it’s bespoke built, you can make sure this fits perfectly with your room and includes any features for your media wall fireplace.
It is essential to account for the dedicated recesses for the fireplace and television, so you will need to know all of these dimensions. You’ll also need to ensure that electrical wiring is run into the stud wall for all connections, as these are hidden neatly behind everything.
Add these details to your Design and Specification Sheet! 🤓
The fire (or stove!)
When selecting a fire, you will typically be looking for an electric, inset fire – a fire that mounts within and sits flush the wall. Inset fires will provide some symmetry with the screen above, and the combination delivers the modern appearance seen in many media wall fireplaces.
If, however, you are looking for something a little more unique, you have options!
You could incorporate a two or three-sided fire, visible from around your room, or mount your fire at ground level with a choice of hearths. Alternatively, you could pick a chamber with an electric or gas stove for a more traditional design.
We have a range of electric fires that are ideal for media wall fireplaces, such as:
Evonic Fires
The innovative e-series collection from Evonic Fires, featuring their evoflame® effect flames and operated through the e-smart cloud app, provides the option for a single glass-fronted or side glass design.
Charlton & Jenrick
The i-range from Charlton & Jenrick offers an attractive choice of fire, with their 4D Ecoflame providing realistic flames and features, such as mood lighting, Ambilight fuel bed, Thermocontrol remote, and more.
Charlton & Jenrick
The i-range from Charlton & Jenrick offers an attractive choice of fire, with their 4D Ecoflame providing realistic flames and features, such as mood lighting, Ambilight fuel bed, Thermocontrol remote, and more.
Charlton & Jenrick
The i-range from Charlton & Jenrick offers an attractive choice of fire, with their 4D Ecoflame providing realistic flames and features, such as mood lighting, Ambilight fuel bed, Thermocontrol remote, and more.
If you have another fire in mind, it’s not a problem! We’ll work with you to make sure you get the fire you want and that best suits your home and new media wall fireplace.
The television
We’re not specialists in the media department, so we work closely with Colin M Smith to help our customers across Dundee & Angus choose the perfect television and audio equipment to meet their vision.
While the television’s features will affect your viewing experience, such as screen refresh rates and contrast ratios, the takeaway questions we’ll need to know are:
- What is the screen size?
- What are the dimensions, including height, width, and depth?
- What is the weight of the television?
- What additional devices and connections are needed?
Knowing these things, we can plan and design the perfect media wall fireplace for your home.
Media wall fireplace and television size guide
| Fire Width | Fire Height | TV Size* |
|---|---|---|
| 800 - 1000mm | 300 - 750mm | 32" - 43" |
| 1000 - 1300mm | 300 - 750mm | 43" - 55" |
| 1300mm+ | 300 - 750mm | 50" - 60" |
Features and finishes
It might be as simple as a lick of paint, and you’re done!
Alternatively, there is a whole world of features and finishes that you can consider when designing your media wall fireplace.
- Inset your fireplace flush with the wall or within a chamber
- Include a beam into your design for a traditional feel
- Incorporate shelving or storage into surrounding spaces
The possibilities of what media wall fireplace you’ll create are limitless.