Several sunrises ago, my family, friends and I spent the New Year at this charming cottage in Nanyuki, at the foot of Mount Kenya. It was an expansive bungalow – concrete floors, a thatched roof and high ceilings.
The package came with a talented chef, house cleaners and a caretaker. Every night, the caretaker would light a fire in the fireplace. It would be a real fire with crackles of burning wood, smoke and ash.
The fireplace itself was this generous cave in the living room, its hearth was built of red brick and sealed off with a well-worn black wire mesh. The fire warmed up the entire house but never filled it with smoke or ash scattered all over everything.
It added to the charm of the bungalow and to the mystique of staying at the foot of the majestic Mount Kenya. It was…heavenly. There’s something hypnotic about staring into the flames of a fire. (Well, a contained fire.)
Most houses in the city are no longer built with a fireplace. The only people I know whose homes have real and working fireplaces are the folk who live out of Nairobi, more so those that live on the foot of a mountain, where a fireplace is not just for home aesthetics but more for its essential function of keeping the home comfortably warm.
Aside from that, fireplaces went to die in the same place that curtain boxes did. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have one in your home.
With a few smart styling moves and a mild dent to your pocket, you can create a fireplace in your home, only that it will be a faux fireplace (not ‘fake’, dear reader, the proper term is ‘faux fireplace’. Common literature doesn’t get it right either – a non-working or non-functional fireplace is one that is no longer in use.)
The reason why it’s referred to as a faux fireplace is that it looks like a fireplace, it feels like a fireplace, it may smell like a fireplace but it’s not a real fireplace. You can’t light a logs-and-ash fire in there nor can you sit by and stare into its licking flames.
I hear you asking, ‘If the fireplace isn’t working and cannot be used, what’s the point of having it in the first place? Why go all through all the trouble of installing one?’
Why have a faux fireplace?
A faux fireplace will add a lot of charm to your home. And when it comes to home styling, charm and cosiness go together, more so when you style your fireplace like a pro and it complements your existing home styling.
The fireplace will also add a lot of texture to your home, especially when it’s crafted using the right materials. Couple that with the mantle that will now give you room to display even more textured accessories that show your personality.
Lastly, the faux fireplace will be a focal point for your living room. It will draw eyes to it while centering your space.
Where to place it
The ideal spot for your faux fireplace is your living room. This is because the living room is the most frequented and most central space in your home, it’s also where your family and friends gather when they’re hanging out together and building cherished moments. If you have more than one living room, you can pick the least frequented one and place your fireplace there. Especially if it doesn’t have a TV.
Some faux fireplaces are fixed to one spot while others are mobile, which means that you can move them from one space to another. Understand what this moving about means for your home’s styling before you do it.
How they are crafted
The materials that a faux fireplace is crafted from will depend on whether it will be fixed or mobile. A mobile faux fireplace is crafted using plastic or metal. A fixed one is crafted from brick, concrete, gypsum or wood. The general structure of a faux fireplace mimics that of a real fireplace: a mantel framing it and a hearth for burning your firewood.
The mantel is a must-have for your faux fireplace.
The size of your hearth depends on how much space you’re working with. The more space you have, the wider and deeper your faux fireplace will be and the more real it looks: you can place decorative logs in there or an electric heater that will actually warm up your home.
The dimensions of your faux fireplace are for you to determine. You can go with the standard height of 54 inches, this gives you a mantel and space above it to decorate. You also get a wall for more styling. The mantel itself should be at least seven inches deep.
The width needs to be proportional to the wall the fireplace is sitting on. The standard width is usually 75 inches, but you can play around with this dimension relative to your proportions.
Cost to craft and install
The cost depends on your dimensions and the materials you have chosen. Mobile faux fireplaces crafted from metal and plastic cost much less than fixed ones.
Concrete and brick cost much more than wood and gypsum.
Your faux fireplace can cost you anything from Sh10, 000 to Sh50, 000.
How to style it
Lastly comes the fun and creative part of styling your fireplace.
Remember, this faux fireplace will now be the focal point of your living room and will call a lot of attention to itself. Choose carefully what you choose to style it with (on, around and in it).
Also, let the material of the fireplace guide you. Brick and concrete have a lot more texture than gypsum and wood. Metal and plastic are devoid of personality, which gives you a lot more playing room with your styling.
The same accessories that would style your floating bookshelf, your coffee table and entryway console or your end tables, are the same ones that can go up on your mantel. You can also mount other pieces on the wall above it such as a TV, artwork, pictures and framed mirror.
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