AD Collaboration with Arada
I have always believed that in a renovation project if you can create one space that you can make comfortable first, you will give yourself a sanctuary to regroup and recharge when it all becomes overwhelming. Which it inevitably will! The living room (along side the office) are the two rooms that wouldn’t be effected by any of the building work we have planned for next year so we decided to work on these spaces first.
The living room housed an open fire that we believe had been installed in the 1950’s, so unfortunately not an original feature to the house. This was clear when we lifted the carpets as the floorboards showed where the original hearth had sat which was more central to the room and the positioning that we were after.
It’s important to use a professional when installing a log burning stove. Our installer removed the existing fireplace for us also. We found our him using the MyBuilder app. It is always good to check that they are HETAS Registered too.
The process took three days to do, he worked alone so this may be quicker if you have two professionals doing the job. It was messy but nothing unmanageable, there was no need to repaint our walls and our flooring wasn’t damaged. I know these were concerns that some of my instagram followers expressed, but as the old saying goes ‘you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette!’ I am not an expert so from what I managed to ask the installer, the process involved, removing the fireplace, sweeping the chimney and assessing whether the breast was structurally sound. He then installed the flue, hearth and stove and then finally plastering the walls.
I would have loved a really large opening for the fireplace but the size is obviously dictated by the size of the chinmey breast. I believe everything is possible though. So you could of course rebuild your chimney breast if you wanted to make these kind of alterations but there will be an additional cost. We have gas central heating in the house so we don’t rely solely on the heat from the stove. However, especially while we currently have single glazed windows, It has been a blessing!
The hearth was actually sourced from eBay. I searched for Yorkshire flagstone I believe and I found this natural stone that is stunning. We bought one large piece as this is the look we were after.
We chose the Arada Ecoburn 5 Widescreen Stove in midnight. We were drawn to the widescreen glass door as it made the fire a real feature in the room. Having a real fire lit is such a mood booster and has created some warmth (in every sense) to the living room. Often we find that we sit in here and simply watch the fire burn instead of watching Tv. It has meant that everyone is talking so much more as a family. We haven’t yet fitted a fire guard as we have only been using the stove once our youngest is in bed. Though next winter when he is a little older we will be fitting one as it is more likely it will be on when he is around.
I think it has completely transformed the room and is definitely one of the things on my Wishlist that I can tick off! I’d love to know what you think!
