What Fireplace Accessories Do You Need? By Lisa Becker At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Did you just buy your dream home with a beautiful, wood-burning fireplace? Before you light your first fire, make sure you have all of the fireplace accessories you need to make your fireplace unique and keep you and your family safe. Here are a few accessories to get you started:

Fireplace Screens for Style and Safety

While many fireplace accessories are now merely decorative and add to the ambience of a central fireplace, there are some that also provide a certain amount of safety. One such accessory is the fireplace screen. Screens can be found in any number of designs and materials, and can add a sense of style to any room. But they also help prevent sparks and too much heat from escaping into your room and possibly harming people and/or things that may be nearby. You can choose a single panel screen or one that has multiple folding panels.

Essential Fireplace Accessories: Tools

Every working fireplace needs a good set of tools so you can maintain the fireplace and keep it looking cozy. Traditionally, these tools are made out of wrought iron, but they now come in everything from brass to pewter to graphite. The following are the essential tools that should always be within arm’s reach of the fire.

The Fireplace Poker

If you want to stoke the fire, you’re going to need a fireplace poker. A poker prevents you from having to get too close to the fire to move the wood around and get the fire burning stronger. You want to stay warm, but you don’t want to get burned.

What are Fireplace Tongs For?
Similar to the poker, those tongs help you reach into the fire and move the wood around without putting yourself at risk of getting burned. But they also help you pick up the larger pieces of wood left in the fireplace after the fire has gone out.

Scoop Up Those Fireplace Ashes

Usually, a fire leaves behind a ton of ashes, and not large chunks of wood. To get those out ashes out of your fireplace, you’re going to need a scoop.

A Fireplace Broom or Brush

Of course, you don’t want to try to pick up those ashes with your hands. Make sure you have a broom or brush on hand to conveniently get those ashes into the scoop. Some brooms come with the typical long handle, and others are short for added convenience.

Stands or Hooks for Fireplace Accessories

The last component of your fireplace tool set is the stand. You can usually buy complete sets that include stands in the same material and style as the tools. You can also buy hooks that can be attached to a nearby wall and hang the tools on the hooks.

Andirons for Your Fireplace

No fireplace is complete without andirons. Andirons typically come in pairs and they are the cast iron pieces that hold up the wood or hold the grill that holds the wood. They are usually decorative and can add a specific ambience to your fireplace, depending on the design.

Even More Fireplace Accessories

Believe it or not, there are even more accessories that you might need for your home’s fireplace. Log racks are a great accessory for holding your extra wood. They come for indoor or outdoor use while log carriers help you carry wood from outside to inside. A more traditional accessory is the fireback. Like andirons, firebacks are made of cast iron and are placed at the back of the fireplace to protect it, and they radiate more heat back into the room. You can also add your own sense of style or just make your fireplace homier with a hearth rug.

Using a fireplace requires a certain amount of maintenance, but with the right accessories and tools, you can keep your fireplace burning for many years to come.

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