How to Make your Fireplace Look Better with Glass Doors

Spring is a natural time to make home improvements that keep the home looking fresh and up-to-date. As a fireplace is a strong architectural element in the home, it creates a natural focal point for the whole room. Giving the fireplace a mini-makeover makes the hearth of the home worthy of attention. Installing fireplace glass doors is an easy DIY project that not only adds a lot of style to the room but helps keep the household safe as well.

Gathering with the family around the fireplace to enjoy a cozy fire on a chilly night is one of life’s simple pleasures. Not as enjoyable as waiting for the fire to completely burn out before calling it a night. Fireplace glass doors provide the only safe way to leave a wood fire in a fireplace unattended. Whether the fireplace is metal or brick, installing the doors is easy. Glass doors are available in sizes than can fit almost any fireplace opening and can be installed using standard tools.

If retrofitting a pre-fabricated fireplace, sometimes called a zero clearance fireplace, installing glass doors is even easier. The best fireplace glass door retailers have the ability to create glass doors based on the make and model of the unit. This ensures a perfect fit. A variety of glass doors are available for masonry fireplaces too.

New glass doors for the fireplace offer opportunities to update the style of the fireplace as well. Fireplace glass door frames come in a broad array of colors and finishes. By choosing a color or finish that matches other accessories in the room, the doors help unify the room’s décor, adding a polished, cohesive look to the space. Homeowners may prefer to install an eye-catching frame that will enhance the fireplaces position as a strong focal point.

Whether the glass doors purchased are for a new installation or are fireplace replacement glass, it’s important to ensure that the glass meets UL testing standards for heat. Doors with a lifetime warranty are an indicator of quality as well. While installing the doors is easy, purchasing fireplace glass doors from a reputable online retailer that offers technical help when needed ensures a hassle-free installation.

Installing fireplace glass door this spring ensures that the family fireplace will look great all summer long and will be ready for the first fire in the fall. With so many decorative options available, fireplace glass doors are a great way to add style as well as function to the family hearth.

About the Author Sharon Dyer is the Outreach Director for the Morgan Law Firm. She is a frequent blogger on a variety of subjects. See her recent article on finding a divorce lawyer in Austin on the firm's Austin Divorce Blog.

Complete Brick Fireplace Makeover Before My Company Arrived In Town

The weekend before Easter, I helped my friend Nanci with her fireplace makeover. She had purchased the color themed matte finished paint kit in Twilight Taupe. I really wanted to make sure that she knew this was simple to do and you have to complete each step in order to get the desired affect she was aiming for. She was in panic mode, she had guests coming in from out of town and she wanted a whole new look to her fireplace. Well, after a few hours of work, here is the before and after photos of how it turned out. I decided to let Nanci tell you how she felt when it was all done.


"I could not believe this! It didn't take hardly any time for us to get this done. I absolutely love it and so does everyone who has seen it. I wanted a stone fireplace but that wasn't possible. This gives me the look of stone and my living room looks lighter. The old look was painted red brick and painted gray mortar by the previous owners. I didn't like it and it was chipping too. I am impressed with your product and how simple it was to create the look. I had a professional come in and quote me $750 and I paid way less to get the paint kit, I can not only be proud to say "I did it, but it turned out so much better then someone who wouldn't have cared as much as we did."


May I also suggest you check out these beautiful items for your fireplace makeover project?


Fireplace Mantel Shelf
Mesh Curtain - Fireplace Screen
Fireplace Glass Doors

I linked this up at these link parties take time to check them out:
Chic On A Shoestring Decorating - Flaunt it Friday 
The Brambleberry Cottage
Creations by Kara
Oopsey Daisy
Cheap Crafty Mama
Natural Nesters

A Doable Fireplace Makeover

Does Your Fireplace Need a Makeover?

Most home improvement and remodeling shows on TV are laughably unrealistic.

“Three years ago, Herman and Birdie Buglebaum purchased the home of their dreams: a three-bedroom 1970’s ranch style house in a quiet suburban neighborhood. They invested in this fixer upper with high hopes, but after the unexpected arrival of twins, Herman, Birdie, Buford, and Beryl Buglebaum found their level of creativity, like their bathroom, was far too tiny. Today, our well-coiffed, underfed, spray-tanned team of carpenters is going to help the Buglebaums transform their modest, two-by-four-foot bathroom into a sixteen-cinema megaplex home theater, complete with a working roller coaster, for the very affordable price of $800,000!”

One tidy little hour later, the Buglebaums are smiling and waving goodbye in front of their new- city-block-sized remodeled house, $800,000 deeper in debt for the trouble. Anybody who has ever had an home interior do-over can tell you that a big transformation can devour big time, big money, and big portions of the trust you once had in that bargain-priced contractor.
If you’re commitment-shy and budget-conscious, it makes sense to just D-I-Y it, investing in small changes that transform your house one creative, reasonably-priced little punch at a time.
Since houses can stay stuck in the style of the era in which they were built, your fireplace may remain on the puke side of 1973-yellow if you balk at the commitment involved in changing a permanent part of your house. But you should never have to waste a good fireplace just because it was once hit with an ugly stick. A gorgeous fireplace is the focal point of a desirable living space, it bumps the value of your house up several notches, and on a cold winter’s night, it makes even boxed mac and cheese feel kind of romantic.

Ready to show your house a little love? Take a deep breath and try these fiscally doable ideas to transform your “before” fireplace and into an “after” fireplace:

1. Update the Framing.
The mantel and brick cover the most area, kind like a frame for the fire. With a quality brick paint, you can make a fireplace look totally new without having to rip it out and start over. Paint is one of those small changes that makes a significant difference, so if you don’t do anything else, paint the brick. Brick paint change the color of the fireplace itself while fully retaining the brick’s texture. Too-dark bricks can be painted white, giving a drab, outdated room a fresh, airy feel. The best part? It’s easy and cheap… no second mortgage required.

2. Use Contrast.
Whether you paint the brick or just take down the antlers and put up a black and white photograph, keep in mind that contrast creates drama (the good kind). If your greatroom is done in earth tones (bachelors: this is brown with other kinds of brown), make the brick a contrasting color, or use red or royal blue picture frames on the mantel for an artsy punch. If you’re not that bold, painting to match looks pretty amazing, too.

3. Know when to fold ‘em.
Most fireplaces have glass doors or screens, for obvious reasons (like keeping your favorite rug from going up in smoke). Over time, your once-pristine fixtures can start to look like a burnt offering. If you and ammonia are no longer winning the war on soot, it’s time to throw out the scrubber and just replace your fireplace glass doors.

4. Make it Work in the Off Season.
A clean, unused fireplace doubles as a built-in display niche in summertime. Use it to show off a striking alabaster sculpture or piece of pottery. The larger and simpler the piece of art, the more breathtaking it will look surrounded by all that brick.

5. Cozy it Up.
Maximize your storage and the “cozying” appeal of your fireplace by bordering it with built-in bookshelves. It’s less expensive than buying a large set of bookshelves from a furniture store, and it frees up floor space. Plus, all those books will make your guests think you’re some kind of genius.

EPILOGUE

If you’re not the color-coordinated type (you know who you are), use a fireplace paint kit. Professional decorators designed and combined the perfect colors for your living space, and the kit comes with everything you need – a tool pack, 5 shades of brick paints, and easy-to-follow DVD instructions.
You’ll just be that much closer to keeping with the Buglebaums.