• Fireplace Design – The Basics
  • There are a few basic principles that should be followed when designing a fireplace, namely the hearth, firebox and opening You should be careful to ensure they all mesh well with each other so that the overall look and feel of each piece flow well amongst each other.
  • So let’s begin with the hearth. A hearth may be level with the flooring, raised a bit above the floor, or found below the level of the floor. In some cases, there may be no hearth to speak of at all. In these cases the firebox should be at least two inches above the floor, as the hearth protects the floor from the intense heat from the fire itself. Hearth seats of various types are also available. More commonly, the fireplace type utilizing hearth seats simply feature two blocks on either side of the firebox opening.
  • Complimenting the many styles of of fireplace hearths, the designs of fireboxes generally affect the height relative to the floor and / or hearth. There are raised fireboxes, flush fireboxes built to the same height of the flooring, in addition to dropped fireboxes that are built in below than the hearth and/or floor in front of the fireplace area.
  • Lastly we come to fireplace openings, also known as the fireplace surround and where the mantle can be found. The styles of this opening may change quite a bit; from straight, flat rectangular and full arch along with the more common fireplace openings with a u-shape design. We’ll spend some time on a bit of the divergences now:
  •     * The most typical kind of fire place opening is rectangular designed openings. Generally, this kind of opening will be just that – shaped in a rectangular form. However, even with this style of openings, the sides typically taper towards the firebox from the outside face of the fireplace.
        * Flat arched top openings with straight sides, although the top of the opening has an arch design. As with more traditional rectangular shaped openings, the sides typically flare out from the firebox toward the face of the fireplace.
        * Full arch fireplace openings contain no straight lines. This kind of fireplace openings have one continuous shape around fireplace opening. This is the type you are commonly used to finding in American Southwestern designed fireplaces.
        * Corner fireplace openings allow for there to be a couple sides open to the fire place. Just as the name advises, corner openings are fixed in such a way allowing for an whole corner section of the fire box to be shown.
        * Finally, u-shaped openings in which the firebox is exposed on a total of three sides: the face, as well as the two side areas. These last couple types of fireplaces will broadly create more volume of heat. If you expect on heating your living room, these are in all likelihood the more advisable fireplace designs to consider.
  • As you can see, they’re many various kinds of fireplace configurations. Of course, they’re disadvantages and advantages to each, so take your time when picking out the firebox, hearth and opening of the fireplace. By choosing the best fireplace design not only will you increase the warmness of your home, you’ll also make the house more comfortable and cozy.
  • Fireplace Design – The Basics
    By Joe Hayes