A fire is usually a charming little bit of old-school design in your house, evoking cozy winter evenings and easier instances once we lacked issues like central heating. It’s not unusual for newer properties to have fireplaces included into their widespread areas—typically an ornamental electrical or gas-powered mannequin that serves as a lot as a lighting function as a warmth supply—and in older properties, a wood-burning fire is a fairly widespread discover.
Whereas these previous fireplaces could be enticing, typically they’re problematic from a design and format perspective. When you’ve got an enormous fire in your front room however your loved ones sometimes focuses on the tv, for instance, or in case your previous fire is non-functioning and sort of ugly, you may discover it a little bit of an eyesore and an irritation as you attempt to devise a furnishings plan that is smart. Tearing out an previous fire is plenty of bother and expense, so that you may select to easily de-emphasize the fireside, or cover it altogether. Listed here are your greatest choices for pretending that fire was by no means there within the first place.
Closing it off
When you’re going to completely cover your fire behind one thing like a wall, you need to shut it off first. This implies sealing up the chimney to forestall airflow (and maintain critters out of your home), which could be achieved in quite a lot of methods relying on whether or not you wish to maintain the choice of opening it up once more sometime. If the ugly fire you’re hiding is a gasoline or electrical insert, you need to disconnect it from its gas and energy sources earlier than overlaying it up—or take away the insert fully.
As soon as that’s completed, you will get to work ensuring nobody ever notices this monumental eyesore.
Wall it up
In case your fire is mostly a downside, you possibly can contemplate walling it up. You’ll be able to body a bump-out wall over your fire by first eradicating the mantel, if potential, after which attaching furring strips to the wall and remnants of the fireside. If the fireside is flush with the wall, you may merely glue drywall into place. Then tape and dust as you’ll any wall.
Whereas that may actually cover the fireside, having an odd bump out in your front room may not be fascinating, so you may go midway and fill within the firebox. This can have the impact of remodeling a ineffective fire right into a wall function. You should purchase ornamental inserts (or construct your personal), or brick up the firebox and paint to match the remainder of the wall.
Screens
Hearth screens exist primarily to maintain sparks and embers from invading your house (or to maintain pets and kids out of the firebox), and plenty of of them additionally function enticing methods of obscuring or at the very least beautifying a fire. However you should buy many who may even serve to seal off the firebox and assist to cover the fireside itself.
Furnishings
One of many easiest methods to cover a fire? Organize your furnishings in entrance of it. A sofa or couch positioned in entrance of a hearth will definitely cover it, and there’s completely no rule that claims you possibly can’t try this when you’ve got no real interest in utilizing that previous fire. A tall freestanding shelving unit, sized to utterly cowl the fireside, may also work gangbusters whereas offering you with further storage. You may additionally contemplate constructing or buying a low storage unit and inserting your tv on high, which may utterly obscure your fire and change it as a focus within the room.
Paint
A fast, low-cost means of de-emphasizing a fire is to clear it totally after which prime and paint it. Merely portray it to match the remainder of the wall colour will go a good distance towards invisibility. Mixed with the elimination of the mantel, if potential, and a painted display screen or insert, this challenge can virtually utterly erase an unpleasant fire.
Shelving
A closed-off, unused fire may also change into a shelving unit for books or the rest. Shelf brackets could be put in within the firebox identical to anyplace else, or you possibly can construct a customized insert. With a coat of paint or some tiling work, you possibly can flip that fire right into a built-in shelving unit that gained’t look misplaced in your room.
Flowerpots and artwork
When you don’t have the time or price range for a challenge, think about using it as a body for some sculpture or a portray or {photograph}. A big-sufficient body can cowl your complete fire, or you may place massive items in entrance of the fireside with complementary items on the mantel to tie every little thing collectively right into a cool artwork set up.
Equally, massive flowerpots with smaller vegetation on the mantel could be organized to show your fire into a fantastic indoor container backyard. Neither of those approaches will utterly cover your fire, in fact, however they are going to undoubtedly change the dialog from “wow your fire is hideous” to “wow I wish to try this in my home now.”
Pet options
When you’ve cleaned your fire totally and easily wish to give it a goal in your room, set up a pet mattress within the firebox and on the ground in entrance of it and let your cat or canine camp out in there. Once more, this gained’t essentially make your fire invisible, however it would make it a extra seamless and natural a part of your room’s stream in case your pet units up in there each time you will have company.
