These days, your living room is one of the most important rooms in your home. It’s the place you go to relax, entertain guests, and unwind. Nothing completes a living room more than a fireplace. Wood heaters are a traditional way to add warmth, style and create a focal point in your living room.
When selecting the right fireplace for your living room, you can either select an inbuilt or freestanding wood heater. If you have decided to proceed with a freestanding fireplace before you do anything else you will need to consider location, location, location.
Let’s explore some of the reasons for selecting freestanding fireplaces and how to style it to suit various living room spaces.
Reasons for selecting a freestanding wood heaterIf you have opted to install a freestanding wood heater over other options, these could be some of the reasons why:
- You have a suitable compact or small space it can fit into
- You’re looking to heat larger living spaces
- You are looking to replace an existing fireplace.
- You are looking to add value to your home
A freestanding wood heater can add a charm, ambience, and warmth to any space. Nothing beats the ambience of a fire on a cold winter day.
Freestanding fireplaces tend to be more suitable for traditionally designed homes. However, there are several modern freestanding fireplace designs and new colours that are making these fireplaces ideal for contemporary style homes.
Styling fireplaces for compact or small spaces
Freestanding wood heaters are available in various shapes and sizes, making them perfect for installing in small, awkward spaces such as window boxes, unused fireplace boxes, and triangular rooms.
By installing it into an existing underutilised living room area, you can transform a dead space into a focal point that adds value and creates a charming ambience.
When assessing your prospective space, make sure you can install a flue (aka chimney) with ease that ideally has access to sourcing fresh air.
Styling fireplaces for larger spaces
The primary function of your fireplace is to provide you with warmth. Freestanding fireplaces look perfect as a focal point in larger rooms. Functionally, these fireplaces are ideal for heating from just your living room to most of your house depending on the size you get.
There are many ways to make your wood heater the focal point of your large living area. Suppose you would like to install it in the centre of your living area. Start by assessing the flow of foot traffic in this space. By doing this, you will locate a suitable area that is less frequented to install your wood heater.
Freestanding fireplaces have the potential to become the focal point of your living room. By elevating flooring surrounding your freestanding fireplace using materials such as ledge stone or tiles, you can create a magnificent statement piece.
From a safety perspective, if you have children or pets, you will need to add fireguards, which may be impractical and make your fireplace look cumbersome and cluttered.
Replacing your existing fireplace
A cost-effective way to modernise your living room is to replace your existing wood heater. The advantage of upgrading your fireplace is that you won’t need to change the room’s structural layout or fireplace design.
Most of the time, you can place your new fireplace on existing floor surfaces and with limited additional work or renovations required. If you are replacing a wood heater, you may want to refurbish this space and create a splash of drama.
Consider installing a dark stone veneer or a black feature wall to create a modern look that will attract the eye. A refurbished space will also clean up any existing ash residue surrounding the area where the former wood fireplace once was.
Freestanding Wood Heaters in unused living space
Freestanding Wood Heaters are perfect for installing in the corner of your living room. Corner fireplaces are a great space-saving solution and they will not interfere with living room traffic flow. Other practical reasons to install a freestanding wood heater in the corner is because:
- It is easier to access and source fresh air for the flue (aka chimney) if one of the corner walls is an external wall
- Most changes are cosmetic, meaning the installation will not require many changes to your living room from a structural perspective
- The fireplace is easier to maintain from a safety perspective.
When it comes to styling, it is important to remain consistent with the style of your house. If you have a more traditional home, you may prefer a more rustic style with brick and wood features surrounding your fireplace. Alternatively, if your home is more contemporary, you may prefer a more minimalist look featuring statement tiles or dramatic colour blocks.
Always design your living room with safety in mind
When designing your living room, you need to factor in safety first. If you have small children or pets, it might be worth creating an extra layer of protection by incorporating a firescreen into your design.
There is a range of traditional and contemporary firescreens available on the market to complement and align to your overall style.
Next steps
Ultimate Wood heaters deliver high quality, world-class Australian made fireplaces. Our team is conveniently located across seven locations around Australia.
If you are still shopping around for the perfect freestanding wood heater for your living room, click here to visit our online range of high-quality freestanding wood log fireplaces. Other fireplaces styles available by the team at Ultimate Woodheaters & Gas Log Fires include gas log fires and inbuilt wood heaters.