And yes, another renovation blog. Fortunately, you appreciate these blogs and interior inspiration I have seen, so I can take you with confidence in a blog about our new hanging fireplace. The eye-catcher in our living room and my great pride. To be honest, six months ago I would not have dared to dream that we would have this beautiful hanging fireplace in our house. But I'm so glad we made this choice. I would be happy to take you through our selection process and what we paid attention to when choosing the stove.
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I think a fireplace that hangs on the wall is very beautiful anyway. But besides being beautiful, it is also very practical. You can go under it with the vacuum cleaner. The floor is easy to keep clean and the view of this hanging fireplace is also very different from our old wood-burning stove.
Let me start with that first. In previous blogs you have read that we have renovated the entire living room, kitchen and dining room. The scrap ceilings have been removed, walls have been demolished, a new floor, a few steel beams in and all the walls plastered. It was a huge job that took us months, but in the end there are only a few small things left to do.
In our old living room we had an old wood stove in a fireplace. Check the photos below. We would remove the chimney anyway and the idea was to replace the wood stove and install a new pipe to the flue.
Let's face it, this wood-burning stove is also quite nice, isn't it? However, when the fireplace was broken out and the old wood stove was moved, it turned out that it was no longer in order at the rear. A lot was broken, the closure of the fireplace no longer worked properly and the heat-resistant stones in the fireplace hadn't done their job quite well either. The rear was 'loose' in it. As you can see in the photo on the right, there were still tiles behind, but we also wanted to get those out.
It was therefore no longer really responsible to keep this wood-burning stove. In addition, because of his age, he is also technically not the best performance. And then the hanging fireplace came into view, haha.
The step from an old wood-burning stove to a hanging fireplace may not be completely self-evident. There is still a lot in between. The range of wood-burning stoves is huge, of course, so make your choice from that. However, the choice was not very difficult for us. When looking around on the internet, my eye quickly fell on this beautiful hanging fireplace from Droomkachels. It is a fireplace of the brand Dik Geurts, a Dutch supplier. This Vidar Wall is one of the few hanging fireplaces if you are looking for a real wood stove and not an ethanol fireplace.
Ethanol fireplaces also come in all kinds of scents and colors, but in my opinion nothing beats a real wood stove.
The reason we chose a hanging fireplace is really purely aesthetic. They also have the hanging Vidar fireplace in a standing version. Then you immediately have a wood storage underneath. All very useful in itself, but just a little less special. And I like special in my interior. Special, modern and sleek with a cozy touch. And quality, we like that too, haha.
Rather pay a little more for a fireplace that we know comes from a good brand and that you have something special. That is somewhat our view on interior design in general and our hanging fireplace in particular.
There was still some time between the decision to go for a hanging fireplace and the actual installation of the fireplace. Because our living room had to be completely in order first. The fireplace could only be hung after plastering the living room and painting the walls. And then I also had in my head to paint a wall with concrete-look paint. In addition, there is currently also a storm when you talk about purchasing fireplaces and wood stoves. Everyone would like to stay warm this winter and not be too dependent on gas prices.
Anyway, the wood-burning stove was delivered on time and the Droomkachels installer was at the door on the agreed day. And before I knew it, he had already hung our fireplace. Below I quickly took some pictures of the preparation at the start and when I was working for a while he already called me to come and have a look.
The wood-burning stove from Dik Geurts has a very nice and sleek finish. The design is modern and the execution of this hanging fireplace leaves nothing to be desired. Hanging the fireplace is (almost) a piece of cake. Now I wouldn't start on this myself, but the mechanic was able to hang that heavy fireplace on his own. It is actually a matter of measuring well, drilling two holes (it is nice that the dust is extracted here immediately) and then attach the hanging system of the fireplace. When the fireplace is hanging, the pipe can be attached to (in our case) the existing flue and the rosette finishes it off nicely.
This hanging fireplace has an efficiency of 88% due to the infrared glass that is used and the glass is on three sides. This gives us a beautiful view of the fireplace from all sides. Super stylish don't you think?
The flames of this fireplace that hangs on the wall is also beautiful. There is a plate at the top of the hanging fireplace that is slightly smaller than the fireplace itself. This plate that ensures that the flames do not go directly into the pipe, but that they hit the plate and go around it. This gives a very nice effect. In addition, I also think that the heat stays longer in this hanging wood stove, which is also good for the efficiency.
You can also determine the height of the hanging fireplace yourself in consultation with the installer. Normally, the fireplace is hung at a height of about 40 cm from the floor, but in our case we opted for 50 cm from the floor. For two reasons:firstly, I love the idea of feeling the warmth of the fireplace directly near me. When I now sit in the rocking chair by our Dik Geurts fireplace, I am at about the same height. Nice and warm and a nice view of the flames.
In addition, I painted a surface on the wall in a concrete look and I wanted to let the fireplace fall into it. That was also better with 50 centimeters from the floor. A major advantage of this height is that we can now easily reach the fireplace to light it. Compared to our wood-burning stove, this is really nice. Add a block? We don't have to get down on our knees anymore. We also have a better view of the flames from the couch. The height of 50 cm at which we have hung the fireplace has only advantages as far as I am concerned.
I checked with the installer of our hanging fireplace about the heating. He told us that it doesn't matter much which way you fire now, and we like the reverse firing the best. Do you know that? You start with a pile of large logs and "build" upwards towards your kindling. Instead of starting with your kindling. A few firelighters on top and your fire is ready. The big advantage of this is that you don't have to look at it for the first half hour. Now score something beautiful to store the firewood in and the picture is complete.
Another advantage of hanging the fireplace a little higher:you can reach it more easily with cleaning 😉 . Of course we regularly remove the ashes from the fireplace, we have an ash vacuum cleaner for that. I also clean the glass every now and then, just with a damp cloth that doesn't leave streaks on the glass. Easy peasy.
We are really happy with our fireplace. The fact that it hangs on the wall is aesthetically very cool and it is very easy to operate because it hangs a bit higher. The heat that comes off is really wonderful and the fact that you can see the flames on three sides is super cozy. No other fireplace would have looked more beautiful in our living room. And yes, it is not very cheap, but it is a purchase for a long time of course. In addition, with today's gas prices, it is quite nice to turn on the wood stove more often.
We look forward to burning it every time and don't miss a weekend anymore.
