Looking to create a warm and inviting fireplace for your home? Avente Tile provides a score of installation inspiration and five tips to help you determine how to get started, find a style, and the perfect tile. The table of contents below links to each tip and specific images and styles for easy reference.

Table of Contents

Avente's 5 Tips for Designing Fireplaces with Cement or Ceramic Tile

Your fireplace can be the exclamation point in your space, so really let it speak to your style and create an impact: subtle or bold! Fireplaces are natural for tile designs, but it takes some time and planning to make a layout that works. Cement and ceramic tile are ideal, given the range of available patterns or color choices in plain tile. If you're looking to create your fireplace design, here are five tips to help you get started and find a style that works with your home and makes the design impact you desire. You will also find lots of inspiration and ideas.

Anatomy of a Fireplace

Before we get too far, let's make sure we use the same terms to describe the parts of a fireplace. The line drawing below includes the common parts and names of a fireplace. Every fireplace is different, and not every fireplace has the parts listed below. Some items are called by other names, but we have tried to include the most common nomenclature below.

Design Tip 1: Define Your Style

With so many types of tile, it's always best to start by understanding what you like and what style would work for your home.

Define your taste and your home's styles before deciding what tile to use. Just because you love a tile doesn't mean it will work with the design and flow of your home. For example,

• Do you like plain, solid-color tiles or patterned tiles?
• Are you mad about muted patterns or passionate about vibrant ones?
• What is your style?  Do you like traditional, rustic, or contemporary designs?
• What is the architectural style of your home and the rooms adjacent to the fireplace?

Answer these questions, and you're off to a great start.

You can add decorative tile as accents, a mural, or a surround. Using two or three colors, you can also create a pattern with plain tiles. You can also use one tile color for a more subtle impact. Decide what style suits your tastes, but think about this within the context of your home, which leads us to the next tip.

Design Tip 2: What is the Style of Your Home?

Ideally, you want cement or ceramic tiles that enhance, embrace, or complement the design theme. You want to choose patterns consistent with your home's architectural details. Be sure to consider size, color, and texture. The use of molding and trim can help make the design more traditional. Fireplaces with details like mantles, overmantels, columns, and plinths lend themselves to more traditional designs, while contemporary fireplaces may have none of those details, with only a surround or hearth.

Tip: It's OK to Mix Styles, but Stick to a Theme that Complements Your Home!

We will explore installations that inspire and show how different styles can work together.

A Traditional Fireplace in a Contemporary Home

Remember that a traditional pattern can work in a modern space, but use it sparingly or as an accent. In the image above, our Mission Palazzo North Coast Colorway is a traditional quarter-design cement floor tile that works well in this modern, all-white beach house because it grabs your attention and is paired with a more traditional fireplace surround with a mantle, columns, and plinth.

A Traditional Pattern on Contemporary Fireplace Surround

Notice how our traditional Mission Palazzo North Coast Colorway pattern works well with a contemporary fireplace with no columns and a rustic wood mantle. The space's relaxed beach feel is maintained with the fireplace's clean lines, open space, and limited use of this traditional, formal pattern. It creates quite the focal point with lots of interest.

A Rustic, Provincial Fireplace

The rough, uneven surface of Avente Tile's handmade Rustic  and Arabesque tiles impart a provincial feel that works great for houses with a Pueblo, Rustic, Spanish, Southwest, or Spanish Colonial design. In the design shown below, our Rustic Arabesque Tangier cement tile in a blend of colors and textures, called Normandy Cream Vintage, provides rustic charm when paired with a weathered mantel and corbels and forgoes the traditional columns and plinths.

Pattern, Pattern, Everywhere

The following examples show how patterned tiles are used for the entire fireplace surround. In the first installation, the geometric pattern of our Mission Rabat Blue 8"x8" Cement Tile covers the whole fireplace surround. Installations like this take some planning and may require some "build-out" of the fireplace to accommodate a symmetrical pattern and ensure the entire surround is in a single plain with no columns, apron, pilasters, or plinths.

The bold geometric pattern certainly provides a focus for this 1920s home with its traditional wood molding, floors, and door. The geometric pattern, open and uncluttered space, and clean white walls maintain a slightly contemporary feel—even though the house carries traditional details.

In the next installation, a traditional Roseton pattern will cover the surround and hearth. Plain suface bullnose tile professionally finishes the surround and hearth on the right, left, and front of the fireplace.

Hand-Painted Spanish Tile Designs

Another option is to use Clay Arabesque tiles in one of our popular neutral colors or gray-scale tones. In this installation, Arabesque Aragon in the Sierra Snow Glaze creates a subtle, tone-on-tone pattern in a more contemporary home. The classic, interlocking Arabesque patterns are muted with off-white tiles and gray grout, providing a clean, uncluttered look that works well for modern homes.

Other Tips and Considerations For Tiled Fireplaces

Design Tip 3: What is Your Room's Color Scheme?

Next, decide on a color scheme for your fireplace design, or more precisely, work with the room's existing color scheme, provided you are happy with it. Then start looking for tiles! Make sure to give the design aspects of the project proper attention. Take into account the scale, pattern, and texture of the tile.

Remember to avoid something trendy or something that doesn't speak to you. You won't change the fireplace tiles anytime soon, so you want something you love and won't grow tired of seeing.

Tip: Choose Colors and Patterns You Love that Complement the Space

The pattern or colors should help provide interest and draw attention to a space that will be warm and comfortable - a place that makes you happy and want to share it with friends and family. This can achieved with a bold, high-contrast pattern or color that is an accent or a muted pattern and neutral color that complements the space.

Design Tip 4: Frame the Firebox of the Fireplace with Tiles

You can frame the firebox with a decorative border tile, patterned cement tiles, liner tiles, or listellos. Cement tile rugs often have border patterns that work beautifully to frame the hearth.

Tip: Make sure your fireplace tile design works by framing the firebox!

Use molding, different color tiles, or a different format for plain tile installations. For instance, if you are tiling the fireplace in 6"x6" tiles, try using a 3"x3" tile format around the box or 6" relief molding. The frame can be something other than rectilinear, as shown in this outdoor patio fireplace, which uses plain red tile that arches over the firebox, a mural on the overmantle, and decorative tiles for the columns.

Notice in the fireplace below that the tile frames the firebox even if other design elements like a tiled mural, medallions, or panel are used.

Fireplaces with Cement Tile Borders

In the images below, you can see how a cement tile border pattern incorporating a corner can be used in both contemporary and traditional designs to easily create a frame around the firebox!

Also, the example below shows how plain tile and molding or surface bullnose tile in a plain color provides a professional look and finished edge around the hearth seating and firebox.

Tip: Use Cement Tile Borders to Create a Fireplace Design with Ease!

You have seen how some designs use a cement tile border pattern for the frame while others use a 4"x4" decorative tile, liner, or listello tile. Sometimes, you'll only see a few decorative tiles used, while plain tiles outline the firebox. Or, as shown in the first example, the entire pattern surrounds the firebox. 

Design Tip 5: Consider Scale When Choosing Tile

Tile size and pattern will drastically alter a fireplace's appearance. Therefore, be sure to scale your tiles to the size of the room, the fireplace, and the available space for balance. The tile size must be in scale with the firebox, mantle, hearth, and room. You'll want to consider the pattern on the tile, the tile layout (or how it is set), color, and texture so you create the right atmosphere for your fireplace. So, make sure the tile fits!

In the fireplace image above, the design includes enough space above the firebox to display the entire quarter design pattern.

Tip: Large Quarter Design Patterns May Not Fit!

Large quarter design patterns, ubiquitous in 8"-square cement tile patterns and 6"-square ceramic tile patterns, are often not a good choice for existing fireplaces because not enough of the pattern can be seen. Quite simply, the pattern doesn't fit.

Frequently, folks love a specific tile pattern and want to use it for their fireplace. After ordering samples, they will call and say it just didn't work. I'll ask, "Did you try it in a smaller format?"

Because fireplaces are often small and can't accommodate large patterns, the smaller format works when the tile is the correct scale for the fireplace.

When working with patterned or decorative tiles, looking at patterns available in different formats, such as Malibu, Barcelona, Spanish, and Portuguese tiles, is a good idea. Don't despair if patterns don't work, even after using smaller, scaled versions of the tile. You can always add interest by placing a favorite tile on either side of the mantle or creating a medallion using four tiles.

Ready to Design Your Own Fireplace Using Cement or Ceramic Tile?

These five design tips will help you organize your thoughts around designing your ideal fireplace and selecting the proper cement or ceramic tile to achieve your desired look. Feel free to reach out with questions about the products and patterns. If you want to discuss your design, let us know. We will be glad to help.

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Editor's Note: Originally published on February 22, 2021, today's update includes additional images, installations, content changes for readability or clarification, and improved navigation.