Okay I seriously need YOUR help - yes the tables have turned! :) To faux or not to faux, that is the question and currently my new home dilemma. I move next week on Friday and I'm starting to think about decorating and how I seriously want to put a faux fireplace in this room below... but is that tacky? I was reading one of my favorite decorating books by Mark & Sally Bailey, Simple Home, over the weekend and they are seriously against it - that one must be true to the home and its history. I'm sure this home had a ceramic stove at one time, it was built in 1900, but that was long removed so now I'm trying to figure out if I should add a faux fireplace or not. This will most likely be my living room, though that is still under discussion as I have 3 different rooms that could all easily be a living room due to the incredible floor plan. But for the sake of keeping things easy, let's go with this room being the space for the living room.

The wood herringbone floors are original (110 years old!), as is the ornately carved ceiling -- you cannot see them too well in this picture but there are flowers carved in two rows across it along with beams... so it's a pretty lovely living room. There are no windows on either side, but where I stood to take this photos there is a wall of folding glass doors leading into what will most likely be my office.

Anyway, what you are seeing in the back there are double doors leading to a very large tiled "wintergarten" that happens to be heated so I can use it year round... and out there I plan to cozy it up with plants and a place to read and relax. But back to the idea of a faux fireplace. I would look for something vintage -- not new -- but I think the real draw is to have a focal point but also to create something cozy -- a mantle with a mirror above it and space below for stacking wood and some candles just seems like the right choice. But Mark & Sally Bailey would be against this decision, and so would a slew of other designers out there, yet I still want to do it. What do you think? Any tips? I guess I could also just buy a fabulous dresser or low cabinet and put a shelf over it and a big mirror on top but I have this fireplace idea stuck in my head.

Thoughts?

(image: holly becker for decor8)