Few features can give a jewelry store a homier feel more quickly than a fireplace, especially in the winter.

Interior designer Leslie McGwire says that while fireplaces are usually thought to add a traditional touch, they are available in a wide range of styles. She likes to incorporate them in areas of jewelry stores that also have a bar area and TV for the ultimate statement in hospitality.

She often employs electric fireplaces, which are affordable, simple to install and kid-friendly. “If you’re doing new construction, it’s easy to do,” she says. “Make a hole, pop it in and it’s good to go.” Because electric fireplaces can adapt to a variety of looks, they are just as suitable for a modern space as a clubby one. “Hit the switch,” she says. “Now we’ve got a fire!”

Fakier Jewelers’ New Orleans-inspired interior is accented by an understatedly elegant fireplace for an upscale residential feel in Houma, LA. A neutral palette and fabric-draped furniture create a sense of calm in the space, which was designed by Manon Fakier and The French Mix in Covington, LA.

The interiors of Lucido Fine Jewelry in Rochester, MI and Lucido Fine Jewelry in Sterling Heights, MI, were planned simultaneously by interior designer Leslie McGwire. For inspiration and a consistent theme in the Rochester location, she started with an eye-catching Italian porcelain tile and pulled out colors from the tile for use in the carpeting and the laminate of the showcases. The tile is also used on the logo wall. 

This two-sided, glass encased fireplace does double duty at the renovated Carter’s Jewel Chest store in Mountain Home, AR, because it opens to the bar area as well as into the entrance vestibule. “I am fond of the fireplace design because it serves functional and aesthetic purposes,” says Jesse Balaity of Balaity Property Enhancement, who designed the store in cooperation with owner Chris Carter. “On the vestibule side, there is a built-in bench in front of the fireplace and a pass-through to the retail area. Carter’s opens this space after hours for customers to pick up or drop off orders without compromising security. When it is cold out, they can warm up on the bench while waiting.”

Authenticity is the mantra at Belle Brooke Barer in Santa Fe, NM. It extends from her space, which is in a former Santa Fe horse stable, to her handmade work, which is true to her conceptual vision and uses sustainable materials. Step into her adobe-walled habitat, and authenticity is the theme here, too.

At Belle Brooke Barer in Santa Fe, NM, the adobe-walled habitat is heated with wood in the green kiva fireplace and the jewelry is all made on site in an attached studio.

Directly off the sales floor at Williams Jewelers in Englewood, CO, a customer lounge, also known as a man-cave, boasts a separate, complementary environment with a bar, local beers on tap, a fireplace and a TV. The man-cave is decorated with signed Denver Bronco jerseys. A jewelry case was converted into a combination bar and watch museum for a vintage Rolex collection. “That’s a place I like to hang out,” says Steve Williams, Shaina’s father, who owns the business with his wife, Diane.

Kas A Designs of Jefferson City, MO, occupies two Victorian homes, with a fashionable yet relaxed aesthetic. The buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors twist an old-fashioned brass doorbell to be let into a late-19th-century parlor with a fireplace. “I added a crystal chandelier there, too,” says owner Kas Jacquot. “I always wanted to do that.”

At Evans Jewelers in Smithfield, NC, the design aesthetic mixes eras. Says owner Daniel Evans Jr.: “I love the industrial look, combined with the old and the new, like a Duratrans on a wall built in the 1800s.” There’s also a seating area with leather wing-back chairs and a cow-hide rug next to a bar and a slate fireplace. “People come and sit in the leather chairs and chill for a little while. I love to greet and meet people, and it will eventually turn into a sale, but everything’s not dollar-driven for us,” Evans says. A walk-in humidor is filled with private-label EJ Cigars. The ceiling is 25 feet high and incorporates exposed steel beams that came from the railroad system over 100 years ago.

At Alvin Goldfarb Jeweler of Bellevue, WA, a fireplace and seating area give living room intimacy to a two-story space.

To create a warm atmosphere at Koerbers Fine Jewelry in New Albany, IN, the Koerbers built a stone fireplace area with plush chairs where visitors can sit back and enjoy a cup of coffee or freshly baked cookies from the coffee bar. In addition, they christened the full bar Koerber’s Pub, where clients can enjoy a beverage or take a TV break while they shop.

A professional-grade coffee bar and blazing fireplace invite visitors to venture in a little farther at Green Lake Jewelry Works in Seattle, WA.

The waterfall-adjacent site of Bruno Fine Jewelers in Mercer, PA, is one of America’s most unique jewelry store locations. “Jewelry stores can be stuffy and intimidating,” says owner Larry Bruno. “Nature can take some of that away, and this view is beautiful. I felt it would create a unique experience.”

At Bruno Fine Jewelers in Mercer, PA, the pine fireplace mantel, from an Ohio tavern, is 200 years old.

Specializing in Montana’s Yogo sapphires, The Gem Gallery of Bozeman, MT, is a Montanaesque experience in myriad ways, with open post beams, natural river rock on the walls, rustic wood floors and cases hand-made from local wood.
It features an open floor plan with corner windows providing an enticing view of downtown.

At The Gem Gallery of Bozeman, MT, the artwork on the walls and above the fireplace changes seasonally with exhibits by local Montana photographers.

At Howard’s Diamond Center in Triadelphia, WV, flowers and chairs around the store’s fireplace add touches of the store’s signature purple hue.

Goldsmith Gallery Jewelers in Billings, MT, radiates the ambience of an elegant lodge, complete with a fireplace. That reflects the outdoor life of its customers: miners, cattle ranchers, oilmen, visiting skiers from nearby Red Lodge Mountain Resort. Says owner Scott Wickham: “Someone may come in here in a camouflage jacket and boots and spend $100,000.”

The massive fireplace is a central focus at Goldsmith Gallery Jewelers in Billings, MT.

Says owner Ken Branham of Branham’s Jewelry in East Tawas, MI, “I began designing [the store] from a perspective of walking through the northern woods.” As a result, the store has large pine trees, ash plans and a “river walk” running through it that invites customers to meander around showcase until they arrive at a two-story fireplace with a waterfall feature and a coffee bar.