In case you’re fortunate sufficient to have a wood-burning hearth, chilly climate comes with a silver lining: an excuse to construct a roaring hearth.
“Fireplace turns into this actually superb focus for a room, whether or not it’s conventional or trendy,” mentioned the New York-based inside designer Thom Filicia. “There’s simply one thing poetic, attractive and alluring about gathering round a fire.”
However earlier than you construct that first hearth, be sure you’re prepared. Which means not simply adorning the mantel — which, in fact, steals consideration in the course of the holidays — however selecting the best instruments and equipment to make sure that your hearth seems good and works properly. We requested Mr. Filicia and different designers for recommendation.
Assess the Scenario
Not all fireplaces are enticing. In older properties, some have beaten-up mantels and broken surrounds; in newer properties, they could not have a lot character. In both case, a easy change — or a number of tweaks — can provide a fire a brand new look with out tearing all the pieces out.
When you may take away your mantel and substitute it with a brand new one, it’s not at all times essential. By no means underestimate the ability of paint. When Mona Hajj, an inside designer primarily based in Baltimore, Md., was engaged on a house in Washington, D.C., her purchasers discovered the wooden mantel of their eating room “so darkish and miserable,” she mentioned, that they requested her to scrap it.
However she may see that it was a top quality piece, and when she coated the mantel and the encircling partitions in off-white paint, it remodeled the look from forbidding to contemporary. “It simply softened that space,” Ms. Hajj mentioned.
Mr. Filicia used an analogous method whereas renovating an previous colonial-style dwelling in Greenwich, Conn. As an alternative of white, although, he painted the mantel a darkish aubergine and coated the room’s partitions and trim in the identical coloration, so nothing stood out. “You simplify it by doing all the pieces on this one stunning, wealthy coloration,” he mentioned. “It turns all the structure into texture.”
Altering the encompass moderately than the mantel may also give your hearth a brand new character. When Amanda Jesse and Whitney Parris-Lamb, the founders of the Brooklyn-based inside design agency Jesse Parris-Lamb, renovated a brownstone in Park Slope, they encountered drained fireplaces that had surrounds of broken subway tile inside enticing unique mantels. Fairly than changing the broken tile with one thing related, they selected extra distinctive, modern tile: a blue-and-white checkerboard sample from Balineum for one hearth and a russet-colored floral sample from Neisha Crosland for one more.
“Altering out the fireside encompass is a pleasant technique to replace it whereas nonetheless respecting the historical past of the home,” Ms. Parris-Lamb mentioned.
Add Distinctive Andirons
A pair of andirons or a fire grate is vital to assist get air below logs and preserve them from rolling out onto the fireside. However selecting the best ones isn’t solely about performance.
“It’s the jewellery. It provides a bit of character,” mentioned Victoria Hagan, the New York-based inside designer. “I really like trying to find particular and strange andirons.”
Typically it’s the primary buy she makes when furnishing properties for purchasers, she mentioned, “as a result of it’s the focus” — not simply of the fireside, however of the room.
Ms. Hagan favors classic andirons and coordinates them with the interval and magnificence of every dwelling, from curly wrought-iron items for an informal, colonial-style dwelling to weighty brass ones topped by heavy ball finials in a proper area.
Others go for extra playful designs. When Gary McBournie and Invoice Richards, the married companions of the Boston-based inside design agency Gary McBournie Inc., have been accessorizing a fire in Wellesley, Mass., they selected anchor-shaped andirons.
“An anchor is about as cute as we get,” Mr. Richards mentioned, including that they just like the modern andirons made by John Lyle, who crafts fashions with anchors, fish, stars, human figures and different sculptural parts, in addition to extra conventional English designs from Jamb.
Select Fireplace Instruments
You might purchase a set of matching hearth instruments with a stand that sits on the fireside, however Ms. Hajj and Ms. Hagan desire a extra minimalist method: They restrict the variety of instruments — typically utilizing a single poker or a pair of fireside tongs — and easily lean the instruments in opposition to the mantel after they’re not in use.
“I don’t usually like instruments in a stand,” mentioned Ms. Hagan, who considers it too formal. “I like them casually positioned on the hearth.”
She buys instruments with the longest handles she will be able to discover as a result of they are typically extra elegant and are simple to make use of from a secure distance.
An ash shovel can also be useful for cleansing up after the fireplace has gone out, however it doesn’t should be saved close to the mantel, so it needn’t match the opposite instruments. “I truly discover the shovels awkward,” Ms. Hagan mentioned. “Personally, I desire a dustpan.”
Add a Fireplace Display
In case your hearth doesn’t have built-in doorways or metal-mesh curtains, a hearth display screen that may stop scorching logs from spewing burning embers into the room is important. There’s a variety of designs obtainable — from flat-panel fashions that just about disappear when in use, to folding ones with a number of panels and those who curve out into the room, which frequently look extra conventional and supply simpler entry to the fireplace.
Whichever type you select, an important factor is to make use of one which matches the scale of the firebox opening. If it’s too small, it gained’t do its job; if it’s too large, it would look awkward.
“We see numerous hearth screens which are too small or too large, and it seems sort of just like the fireplaces are carrying the flawed dimension garments,” Ms. Parris-Lamb mentioned. She and Ms. Jesse typically order screens in customized sizes from Wm. H. Jackson Co. or Etsy vendors.
Most hearth screens are made with a steel mesh, however glass fashions are gaining popularity. They provide a transparent view of the fireplace, and might block a number of the warmth — which can be fascinating or not, relying on the room.
That was Mr. Filicia’s aim when he designed one eating room with a fire. “We selected a glass hearth display screen that just about completely matches within the area, so it deflects numerous the warmth,” he mentioned. “It makes it in order that whenever you’re sitting on the eating desk, you’re not overwhelmed by the fireplace. That was actually essential.”
Discover a Place for Firewood
To maintain the fireplace going, you’ll want logs on the prepared — and someplace to retailer them. Many producers make particular steel racks and leather-based slings for holding a number of logs by the fireside, however virtually any large-scale, handsome container will do.
Mr. McBournie and Mr. Richards normally get hold of large, sturdy baskets woven from pure supplies. “Sometimes, we’ll have a big basket that may maintain at the very least a day-and-a-half’s price of firewood,” Mr. Richards mentioned.
Ms. Hajj makes use of an enormous Moroccan copper urn in her circle of relatives room and has purchased related copper buckets for purchasers’ properties. “I at all times attempt to get these large buckets,” she mentioned.
A bonus: The buckets seize filth and wooden shavings that fall off the logs, maintaining the mess off the ground.
Pull Up Some Seats
“There’s a type of primal curiosity in hearth. It’s an attraction,” Mr. Richards mentioned. “Which means individuals are going to need to sit by it.”
To create the coziest spot in the home, Ms. Hajj likes to place an enormous, snug chair or chaise longue proper subsequent to the fireside.
Ms. Hagan has designed rooms with upholstered stools that sit immediately in entrance of the fireside, a few ft from the flames. “It’s a pleasant place to sit down,” she mentioned. “It’s very cozy in the course of the winter.” And in the summertime, the stools can simply be moved elsewhere.
In a Brooklyn rowhouse, Jesse Parris-Lamb positioned thick, tasseled flooring cushions close to the fireside. “It’s good to have some sort of ottoman, stool or flooring cushion near the fireplace, so you’ll be able to cozy up,” she mentioned.
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