HGTV's Mike Holmes uses gypsum brick veneers to quickly and easily upgrade fireplaces. They're a fraction of the cost of real ...

The fireplace often serves as the centerpiece of a room, offering endless opportunities for creative design. If you've been wondering how to give that wall a touch of HGTV-level magic, you're in luck.

Jeff’s wall was rather plain, featuring just a TV, plant stand and a lifeless plant. But the idea was to enhance it with an electric fireplace, creating a cozy and stylish focal point in their home.

Cost: Drywalling over a brick fireplace could run about $1,500. Parko says a 6-foot-wide floor-to-ceiling paint-grade oak or poplar fireplace with a tiled hearth could run around $2,000.

Home design blogger Angela Rose wanted a cement-style fireplace but didn't want to pay thousands. So, she figured out a way to create the concrete look for $70.

Pureflame makes four models of wall-mounted fireplaces, which range in price from US$649 to $879. Freestanding and tabletop models are also available, the cheapest of which can be purchased for $269.

And if you ever sell your home, buyers are far more likely to fall for the beautiful sunlight streaming through the windows than to notice the missing fireplace. 7. You’d rather have the wall space.

Or it won’t be, once you follow this advice. By Tim McKeough “The fireplace must be the focus of every rational scheme of arrangement,” Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman Jr. wrote in their 1897 ...