Should a faux-fireplace be the focal point of a room?

Question

I live in an older apartment building (built in the 40's), and my living room used to have a gas fireplace which was covered up a long time ago. In its place there is a "faux fireplace" - by this I mean that it is a mantle without anything else. It is in the middle of the main wall in the room, and the mantle is a great place to display vases and candles and to hang a picture. However, it takes up space where I would normally put the TV. Because of this, I wonder what the focal point of the room should be? If I angle the couch towards the mantle, it's not a good view of the TV. I'm also not sure if a faux fireplace is interesting enough to merit being the focal point of the room. I currently have the back of the couch to the mantle, which looks nice when you're looking at the couch but then when you're sitting on it your view is into the dining room. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

IF the opening to the fireplace is closed, what you have is bookshelf, not a mantle.  And no, it should not be the focal point of the room if the cut out doesn't even exist anymore.  For all intents and purposes, you don't have an architectural feature anymore, so you can make the focal point of the room anything you want.