Red Brick is for garden walks, outdoor barbecues, and covering with needlepoint for a doorstop. But if you are stuck with a red brick fireplace, do not despair. With careful planning you might grow to love it. The worst thing you can do is make believe it isn't there.
A red brick fireplace can be a difficult design element in a room but if that is what you are saddled with, there are ways to live with it other than painting it white or black which is problem in itself. The painted white fireplace soon looks dirty and is impossible to clean, and either color will have difficulty adhering.
So, let's leave it unpainted and see how we can live with it.
Let's consider leaving the floors a natural color and buying a patterned rug, with brick reds. The Oriental patterns are easy to integrate, mostly the red that blends with the brick shade of your fireplace. Native Indian designs should also be considered and contemporary designs, the bolder swirly ones are a good choice. Whichever you choose, make sure you check the shade of red. It should be in the same family as your fireplace. Find a paint chip that is the same and take this chip to the carpet store to help with your rug or carpet selection.
The upholstered furniture can be one of the secondary colors in the rug. Usually, you can find Orientals with deep blues if you like contrast or sand colors if you prefer a subdued look. Whatever you do, stick to one color and just vary the shades. Basically, your room is going to be in the red family with beige/pink walls, fireplace, and main carpet color. The secondary color is blue or sand. Check the wall color samples in the paint store against the rug you are planning to buy.
Now let's think about accents, finding some strong shapes, decorative objects such as a vase, a bowl for pot-pourri, etc. Hopefully, you've found some great looking pottery, a similar shade of the fireplace brick, as vivid as you like. The reason for the pottery accents is to repeat the texture that the fireplace establishes. The repetition of the texture and vivid color, in small amounts, will be very effective.
And then for the wall hangings, posters, paintings, you need to hunt for the same repetition in colors. Obviously there will other colors in these objects but as long as they are minor rather than major, these other colors only add interest and "buzz" to the room. It's beginning to sound like fun. And the interesting thing is that if ten people went out with these guidelines in hand, they would all have differing results, all pleasing, and exciting.
Maybe we better see if we can find a condo or apartment with a red brick fireplace. Everyone should have one.
Ruth Graham administers http://americanmadeyes.com/ a trusted resource for American made products such as furniture, clothing, cars, food, recipes, and clothing.
