Fan the Flames

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Fan the Flames

Even though 95% of UK homes are centrallyheated and a fire isn’t necessary, there is something mesmerising and cosy about a flickering flame. An open fire or a wood burner will give the best aesthetic, but both options come with a number of downsides: wood-burning is the single biggest source of small-particle air pollution in the UK, you need to store wood and coal, there’s the mess and you will need to do a certain amount of maintenance e.g. chimney sweeping. Modern technology to the rescue then!

Traditional

If you have a fireplace and chimney breast, the fire surround is going to be an important feature in your room. This should reflect the style of your house, with Victorian and Georgian styles best suited to homes from that period, and less fussy contemporary styles better in more recently built homes. There are many homes with chimneys in the UK so the corresponding large number of fireplace buyers means there’s a plethora of options. You can certainly gain inspiration from looking at choices on the internet, but for such a prominent feature in your living room, a visit to a fireplace retailer is a must. For the fire itself, both gas and electric options are available to replicate the real fire look and many are incredibly realistic, with some even making crackling sounds and emitting steam to replicate smoke.

Modern

The beauty of modern electric fires is that you don’t

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have to have a chimney at all. They don’t create any emissions and therefore do not need to be vented like gas and wood fireplaces. These modern designs aren’t intended to pass for a real fire at all and many are sleek and minimalist. It’ll be very obvious that you haven’t been piling up logs and coal, but you will still have a similar ambience and they are very effective. Particularly in wellinsulated modern homes, a real fire can overheat the room and it’s only the flame that you want. A further benefit has to be the safety aspect. If the flame is just an effect and isn’t emitting significant heat, there are no concerns about young children

touching the fire or a spark setting the carpet alight. 3

Media Walls

Media walls are very ‘on-trend’. This is where you have a television and speakers installed above an electric fire. One advantage of this design is that you will just have one focal point in the room. If you are very cost-conscious you can buy predesigned media walls, but if you have one built for your room you will then have complete freedom in the size of TV and style of fire you can install.

Look, No Walls

One further idea is to move your fire away from the wall completely. With a bioethanol option you won’t need an electric connection, so you can have flames on your coffee table or in a corner of the garden, and even have more than one.

1. Mix 850 Bioethanol Fire Pit: £,1495, www.limelace.co.uk 2. Deco Fireplace: £1,395, www.haddonstone.com 3. Luxury Home Media Cabinet & Display: www.brayerdesign.co.uk 4. E NEO3C Electric Stove: £,1135, www.acrstoves.com

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