Electric fireplaces. Relatively inexpensive and easy to install. They don’t require a chimney or any venting — simply plug them into an electrical outlet. Some produce heat and blowers while others are ambience only.

Outdoor fire pits. Having grown in popularity as home owners have developed their yards for exterior entertainment outdoor fireplace can be as simple as a hole in the ground or an elaborate outdoor kitchen.
Landscaping, furniture, and a patio surface can transform an outdoor area into an extra room.

•Surrounds

It’s possible to change the look of a fireplace dramatically. If you don't like the red brick facing on a traditional masonry fireplace, it can be transformed with a surround. Surrounds can be all wood, stone, tile, precaste and iron. They can be a combination of almost any of these materials.

•Mantelpiece
A mantelpiece can be changed relatively easily also.
Mantels can be simple, ornate, and unique. A new mantelpiece, or moldings can compliment the architecture and interior design features of your home. Consider a double or overmantel with mirror(s)in the upper section and corbel lifts carrying a display center. Add carvings! It only ends with your imagination.
Choices may include fireplace mantels decorated with urns and flutes, with rosettes, or with stylized scrolls of leaves and flowers. There has been a development of plasma tv's installed above mantels.

A resonably skilled and dedicated woodworker can build their own. The following mantel was custom sized for a gas insert. Note the fluted columns- They are really hinged doors allowing storage space.

From Fireplacemantels to American Architecture