Fire Place Design For Beginners

Prior to beginning to style any room's fireplace, there are a few basic elements that are usually covered so that an overall fire place design can be completed. There are three strategic parts to any fire place, and you should be careful to ensure they all blend well with each other so that the atmosphere and decor flow well with each other.

The three primary parts to fire place design include the hearth, the firebox and the opening between the firebox and the room where the fireplace is. We'll begin with the hearth.

A hearth might be flat with the floor, raised a bit above the floor, or found below the level of the floor. Often times, there might not even be a hearth incorporated into the fireplace design. In the event of such, the firebox should be at least two inches above the floor, as the hearth is there to protect the flooring from the intense heat that the fire can produce. Hearth seats of various types are also available. The more popular kind of fireplace with hearth seats are the kinds that feature simply two blocks on either side of the opening of the firebox.

Complimenting the many types of of hearths, the designs of fireboxes usually mainly have to do with the height relative to the floor and / or hearth. There are raised fireboxes, flush fireboxes level with the floor, in addition to dropped fireboxes that are somewhat lower than the hearth and / or floor in front of the fireplace area.

Lastly we reach the fireplace openings, otherwise known as the surround and where the mantle is generally located. The styles of the opening may deviate dramatically; from rectangular, straight, flat and full arch along with more traditional fireplace openings with a u-shape design. We'll touch on some of the deviations now:

• The most widely utilized type of opening is rectangular. Generally, a rectangular opening will be just that - shaped in a rectangular form. However, even with this style of openings, the sides usually open outward from the firebox facing towards the fireplace.
• Flat arch top openings have straight sides, although the top of the opening has a slight arch style. As with the traditional rectangular shaped openings, the edges often times open out from the fire box toward the front of the fireplace.
• In addition to flat, there are also full arch openings which have no straight lines. This kind of opening have one continuous bend around fireplace opening. This is the type you are used to seeing in American Southwestern style fireplaces.
• Fireplaces with corner style openings allow for there to be two sides open to the fire place. As its name suggests, corner openings are located in such a way that the complete corner section of the firebox to be revealed.
• Also, u-shaped fireplace openings in which the firebox is open on three sides: both sides along with the front. These final couple types of fireplace openings will in general produce improved volume of heat. If your expecting improvements on providing warmth for your large room, these are probably the better fireplace designs to think about.