A Challenge To Santa: Fireplace Accessories

Every Christmas Eve, Santa Claus wiggles his way through countless numbers of fireplace doors. Each pair of doors insures the safety and functionality of a hearth. The fireplace accessories around the hearth opening manage to put each glowing fire in a stylish metal frame.

Hearth Collections are not defined by their fireplace tools. The defining characteristic of any such collection lies in the nature of the fireplace screen. Traditional or Custom accessories have a simple frame, one that does not contain a single visible rivet.

Some hearth accessories have been categorized as “rivet flat.” The visible rivets in each of their screens form a straight line across the top of that screen. Other such accessories have been described as “rivet arched.”  They all have arched frames, and a curved line of rivets that follows the curvature of the frame’s top.

A top quality steel screen has artisan crafted and hand-forged components. The fine wire mesh in such a screen allows it to keep sparks from flying into the room, the room that can feel the warmth of the fire’s flames. Sometimes a quality screen has a forged iron finish; sometimes it has a matte black coating. In either case, that finish or coat enjoys the protection of a clear coat, one that enhances the beauty of the metal screen.

While an electric fireplace does not need a tool set, a homeowner might want to place a poker, shovel, broom and tongs adjacent to the hearth, in order to play down the presence of a fire that is less than real. When a fireplace holds a true fire, then it should have a firm and secure screen.

The varied types of fireplace mantels reflect the varied environments that benefit from a glowing fire. A formal setting, such as a living room would need a mantel such as the one found in the picture on restorationhardware.com. That lovely wooden mantel joins with a screen from the Rivet Hearth Collection, as it frames a warming fire. The formality of that mantel forms a sharp contrast to the sort of mantel one might find in a family room.

A family room might have been designed so that the brick in the fireplace extends out onto the wall around the brick hearth. In that less than formal setting, the mantel could well be a thick, long wooden beam, a beam anchored to the brick on the wall. To complete to look of your fireplace, look for ideas by searching for your fireplace accessories online.