With the cold snaps currently sweeping many parts of the world, those who are snuggled around a fireplace are in a great position to stay warm and cozy. But if your current fireplace setup is failing to ignite your decorative fires, modern updates are within your grasp with the addition of fireplace glass.
Completely customizable to your unique specifications, the two types of fireplace glass can even be ordered online and shipped right to your door. This means you don’t even have to brave the cold in order to turn the heat up on your indoor fireplace!
To help you decide which type is the best for you, and for a few ideas on how to work your new glass into your old school fireplace, consider the following.
Tempered Fireplace/Safety Glass
Designed to withstand heats ranging in the vicinity of 400-500°Fahrenheit, tempered fireplace glass or safety glass is considered ‘thermally stable’ and is recommended for use as a fireplace screen, for example. In other words, although it is heat resistant and fabricated with extreme heats in mind, it should not be used as a fireplace door. In addition to the risk of fogging, traditional wood and gas fire places tend to burn at a higher temperature than 400-500°F and could damage the glass as a result.
On the upside, tempered glass is the most customizable glass in the fireplace market. You have choices when it comes to colors, thicknesses and even shapes! So whether you want to encircle a fire ring or enclose a floor to ceiling triangle in the middle of the room, you can make it happen with tempered safety glass.
NeoCeram Fireplace Glass
If you are looking for a fireplace door or uses that would place the glass within 6″ of the heat source, you should opt for NeoCeram fireplace glass. Even under long lasting high-heats (upwards of 1,200°F!) and drastic temperature fluctuations, NeoCeram won’t swell or melt like regular glass. When compared to the safety features of tempered glass, NeoCeram is up to three times stronger, thus making it the perfect choice for all of your exceptional infernos.
Now that we’ve covered the basics of the two types of fireplace glass, let’s take a look at two very different ways you can incorporate them into your flame-worthy updating projects.
Updating the Old
Few things say ‘cozy’ quite like a wood-burning stove. Indeed, one of the hottest trends in home décor is taking an antique and breathing new life into it with a fresh and modern element. Replacing a stove’s cast iron door with one made of NeoCeram glass is a seamless way to meld the past with the present as you move into the future.
Ushering in the New
And speaking of the future, maybe something completely new is more in line with what you’re looking for. If so, surrounding a centralized firepit with panels of tempered glass is a great option for creating a sleek and sophisticated futuristic fireplace! And by leaving one side open, you provide the proper air circulation that the tempered glass needs to ‘breathe’ in order to avoid fogging up.
And attaining something that looks like it belongs in a high-priced pad doesn’t have to come with a cost-prohibitive price tag because tempered fireplace glass is a more economical alternative to many of the expensive selections currently on the market.
So you see there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t get fired up about the possibilities for a new (or new-to-you) fireplace with custom cut glass panels. Summon up a creative spark and allow your decoration imagination to ignite!
Are you revamping an existing fireplace with glass or starting from scratch with a brand new setup?
[contact-form-7 404 "Not Found"]About the Author
Shahab Shokouhi is a glass design expert at Dulles Glass and Mirror, an innovative manufacturer of glass table tops, glass shelves, and all other glass and mirror products. Follow Dulles Glass and Mirror on Pinterest or on YouTube to see how they’re changing the way glass products are manufactured, customized and delivered.
