Some of the most fantastic fireplace designs were created in the years following the war when Art Deco reigned supreme. The rounded lines, sweeping curves and eye-popping colors and designs were indicative of a new feeling of hopefulness. Those lines swept the landscape in exterior design, and were brought indoors in lighting fixtures, bars and ? of course ? fireplaces. Fireplaces from the Art Deco period (roughly 1920-1939) feature the same rounded lines and smooth curved angles popular in architectural design, but with more heart. It?s as if all the playfulness inherent in the Deco style were distilled into designing and creating these ultra modernistic, sleek hearths, surrounds and mantelpieces.

While Art Deco fireplaces are made in nearly every material imaginable ? from marble to wood to burnished steel ? they are all unmistakably related in style. One of the most popular Art Deco styles is not even authentic ? it?s an interpretation based on the Zephyr clock, a 1933 classic. The sweeping asymmetrical lines are both whimsical and dramatic, and will add a dashing style to any room. Available in black, white or colors, the Zephyr is the perfect fireplace for an Art Deco inspired room.

Odeon styled Art Deco fireplaces take their inspiration from the styling of the Odeon theaters. The Odeon Blackpool opened in 1939, and its fa?ade featured details that are often found in Odeon style Art Deco fireplaces. In fact, the building fa?ade itself looks like a slightly asymmetrical fireplace and hearth. Unlike the bold color changes and clean, fluid lines of the Zephyr, the Odeon is much more ?closed?, often featuring frames within frames that enclose the design details. Marble was a popular material for Odeonesque Art Deco fireplaces, especially in beige flecked or rose colors.

The classic Art Deco fireplace, though, is ceramic tiled in brilliant colors. The predominant color is often white, with accent tiles in shades of garnet, peacock, emerald or black. The fireplace surround is often patterned with stepped tiles reminiscent in style of the skyscrapers just being built ? tall, soaring structures that narrow at the top into arrows pointing ever upward. The mantelpieces are often fronted with a curved edge, deckled and indented to create the smooth sweep and flow that is characteristic of design in that period. Even the grate often takes on the bold curves and lines of Art Deco, swooping out into the hearth in a gleaming arc.

Art Deco styling is both whimsical and bold. It is, all in all, a self-conscious expression of the artistic, and using it in a modern home calls for a bold hand. Art Deco fireplaces are among the most fanciful and lovely of all antique fireplaces. If your style is bold, dramatic and sweeping, an Art Deco fireplace may be the perfect touch to turn your loft or formal rooms into a conversation piece.