The previous owners of our house had NEVER LIT THE FIRE. I honestly still can’t comprehend how that was possible, they lived in this house for almost twenty years!!! Needless to say we rectified that almost immediately and bought a stove. I was initially a little hesitant as I didn’t think it would give out as much heat as an open fire, but boy was I wrong! It actually borders on a little too hot sometimes (but don’t tell anyone as I have a heat-addiction reputation to uphold!)
What type of stove did we get?
We knew we wanted to burn real timber so a gas stove was never an option. Electric stoves are gaining in popularity now as people start living in or building A-rated homes. In that case, you wouldn’t need the stove to give out any heat, it’s just for that cosy fire effect. And I have to say there are some seriously realistic looking ones, that are completely cool to the touch!
While you can get stoves that are wood burning only, we wanted the option to throw anything in, so we bought a multi-fuel one. It’s the Cara Insert Stove by Waterford Stanley, in a matt black finish. An insert stove sits back into the fireplace so it’s flush with the wall. We had a slight problem in the beginning because our fireplace wasn’t deep enough to push the stove all the way in. We had a choice of either enlarging the original fireplace (which would have been a lot of extra work) or adding a frame between the stove and wall. It only needed an extra two inches so we went with a frame.
Our installer created the simple metal frame and painted it black using a special stove paint which can withstand high heat. In the end, the extra layer around the edge of the stove turned out way nicer than we hoped. It makes the stove that little bit more substantial looking, which was exactly what it needed as we don’t have any fireplace surround.
Insert or Freestanding or even Wall Hanging?
Our living room was just too small for a freestanding stove. It would have jutted out about two feet into the middle of the floor. Not an option! So we bought an insert (sometimes called inset) stove but it took a long time for our installer to convince me it was just as hot as a freestanding one. And yes, of course, it is!!! It’s designed in such a way that ALL the heat is thrown out, into the room, from the front of the stove. There is no heat wasted inside the wall as I once feared.
And how cool is that wall hanging one?? I didn’t even know they existed until I started writing this post!
A Few Valuable Tips…
- For me, the whole point of having a wood burning stove, is to see the wood actually burning!! I want that glass sparkling clean, so I cannot recommend this Schott Cleaning Sponge enough!! YOU DON’T NEED TO USE ANYTHING WITH IT! Simply scrub the glass using the dry sponge and it takes any dark spots away. Maybe it’s a little easier to keep clean because we only burn timber but I’m pretty sure that sponge would sort out any stove! I buy a new one each winter and people are always commenting on how clean the glass is!
- Use good quality fuel! Timber that isn’t lighting quickly just isn’t dried out properly, so look elsewhere. We have been gifted timber from Fairyhill Firewood and it’s great quality. So if you live in Cork I’d definitely suggest looking them up!
- Check out the top picture. This is what the stove looked like right before I lit it for the first time this winter. When the weather warms back up again in spring, I like to fill the stove one more time with timber so it looks good all year long! You could also fill it with candles, faux flowers, painted timber…anything really, just don’t leave it bare!
- Finally, make sure you get a stove with the perfect heat output for the size of your room! Obviously you want the stove to heat the room fully but you don’t want to buy one that makes the place uncomfortably hot either! Here is a handy guide that allows you to input your room dimensions and it will tell you what size to buy. We have a 6.5KW stove in our living room.
There is just nothing better than curling up on the couch looking at this! It’s my favourite place to be! And my vase makeover from last week is still going strong. The hydrangeas seemed to have completely dried out, which I’m loving. Not sure how long that will last!!
