Choosing the Right Fireplace

Choosing the right fireplace can make or break the mood of your living room. A good fireplace acts as a central focus, drawing the eyes of your guests and giving you a starting place for the decoration for the rest of the room. Done badly, the fireplace can feel out of place in the room, over bearing and can create a negative vibe for you and your guests.

What to Consider

You have to take your whole room into consideration when picking your fireplace, and not just the spaces you can see. Installing a new system can often require new pipework or opening up the chimney, both of which will cost more and require you to vacate the room for a number of days whilst the work is done.

Some important things to consider include:

The width of the wall

Choose a fireplace that’s too wide and it will dominate that side of the room, which can be very detrimental in small spaces. On the other hand, an overly small fireplace will not give your room the appropriate gravitas. Professional interior decorators recommend a ratio of 1:2 of fireplace to blank wall space.

Chimney access

Unless you’re installing a gas fire, you’ll need some sort of external ventilation which is typically provided through a chimney. However, many new builds don’t have the correct ventilation openings so you may need to create a vent to an outside wall which will change the design and layout of the rest of the room.

Colour scheme

Fireplaces tend to come in either black or a range of metals, from bronze through to stainless steel. All of these are easy to match in terms of colour, but it’s your surround that will dictate the rest of the room. A simple choice is to go white which will allow you to choose a bright colour for a feature wall.

Styles of Fireplace

Once you’ve scoped out the room and know what limitations are in place, you then need to think about the style that will meet your needs and budget:

Modern

Modern fireplaces look sleek, with chrome finishes and highly efficient metals to radiate the heat out into the room. They will force you down a more clinical finish for the room as they won’t look like a typical fireplace.

Traditional

These will be the cheapest as they are more common. Whether you choose wood burning, electric or gas, you’ll find models that keep the moving flames at the centre of the design.

Cosy

If you have a smaller room or you’re looking to save money on heating bills, a cosy fireplace will suit you best. They tend to be much smaller and more compact which will allow you to have a smaller surround.

Minimalistic

These tend to be more functional than stylish. The main aim of a minimalist fireplace is to generate as much heat as possible in the smallest space possible and are often wall mounted to heat the room more efficiently.

Here at The Fireplace Studio, we are proud to offer our customers a wide range of fireplaces to suit a variety of tastes and interior designs. If you would like to know more, contact our team today or visit our showroom.