It’s a new year and that means it’s time to explore what’s new in fireplaces. While humans have been drawn to fire for thousands of years, we have certainly seen an explosion of interest in adding a fireplace to the home during the COVID stay-at-home period. Renovations that had been put off were suddenly top priority for millions of homeowners over the past 2 years. That has resulted in tons of images of fireplaces in our social media feeds, and on sites like Pinterest. There’s no doubting our love for fireplaces and the desire to have one at home. The beauty of electric fireplaces is that they are much simpler to add to your project than gas or wood-burning fires. Current product designs have features and quality that are second to none. We’ve summarized the top trends that we’re noticing in fireplace design now.
2022 Fireplace Trend: Go Big & Go Home
Like it or not, homeowners are mounting TVs above fireplaces. They want to enjoy the ambiance of the fireplace while binge-watching their favourite shows. As the TVs have gotten larger, the electric fireplaces installed below have also gotten larger. With electric fireplaces, the heat output is not determined by the size of the fireplace. This means that it’s possible to balance the size of the fireplace with the size of the TV. And we are! Average fireplace size has moved up from 50-inches to 60-inches, with 74-inch fireplaces becoming increasingly popular.
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2022 Fireplace Trend: Not Your Granny’s Fireplace
As they embrace electric fireplaces, homeowners are also embracing bold new designs for their feature walls. Wider fireplaces demand wide fireplace walls, so there’s a definite horizontality to many of our recent designs. Clients are more open to asymmetrical designs, floating shelves, and unconventional media kits inside the fireplace. Because electric fireplaces are truly zero-clearance, the choice of wall materials is endless, and no space is wasted around the fireplace.
2022 Fireplace Trend: Return to Traditional – sort of
While our most popular fireplace models continue to be long, lean and linear, there’s been a steady demand for traditional-style fireplace inserts, and even some traditional wall units. Among the trad-loving clients, there’s a bit of a divide between those looking for the most realistic flames and insert possible, and those who want the traditional shape, but without the bricks and grate inside. Fortunately, there are electric fireplace options for both. It’s our belief that a traditional fire with logs in a grate will never go out of style, and you can design any style wall around it. These fires will have natural yellow/orange flames and not a lot of coloured lights or media options. However, some people want the coloured flames and media options that typically go with more linear styles, but in a traditional footprint. For them, there are also many options available that allow the best of both.
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When it comes to wall designs, we’ve seen a small contingent of clients opt for very traditional European details, with painted cabinets and arched bookcases. As these are quite classic design details, we believe clients will love their cabinets for years to come, and won’t tire of them easily.
2022 Fireplace Trend: It’s a Mist-ery – the Rise of Opti-myst
We have seen an explosion of interest in the Opti-myst line-up of electric fireplaces. These are units that turn tap water into a fine mist, which is then lit up to look like flames. The technology has been around for many years, but it has really taken off in the past 2 years, as more homeowners hire pros to renovate their homes. Opti-myst is not a DIY fireplace – it requires a custom wall design, and a plumbing line, as well as air supply from below. It’s a bit much for do-it-yourselfers, but easily managed by builders. As more clients see it online or in friends’ homes, they see what’s possible, and they want it, too. For some clients, once they’ve seen flames that look this real, it’s hard to go back to a regular fireplace.
2022 Fireplace Trend: Fire that doesn’t heat up the planet
COP26 has made us more aware than ever of the need to curb our carbon emissions in order to ward off climate change. We are witnessing an increasing number of catastrophic weather events, like the flooding in BC and Newfoundland, and experts tell us they will only keep happening as Earth’s temperature rises. One way to curb our carbon emissions is to stop burning fossil fuels, like natural gas. When it comes to fireplaces, eco-conscious homeowners have discovered that they have a choice other than gas. An electric fireplace doesn’t burn any fossil fuels – there’s no combustion at all. We’ve written an entire blog post about Climate Change and Electric Fireplaces, because we are getting asked more frequently about this hot topic. Suffice to say that the demand for electric already exceeds gas fireplaces, by virtue of the relative ease of installing electric. We see this demand increasing even more as homeowners make a conscious choice to reduce their carbon footprint.
Stylish Fireplaces knows that adding a fireplace to your home can be challenging. With an electric fireplace and their NFI Certified Hearth Design Specialists, it’s easy to create a space you’ll love to share with family and friends. Check out all the options and connect with their experts for help to find the perfect electric fireplace for you. You’ll live stylishly ever after.