A fireplace glass door is installed on a fireplace to keep the room warm longer when the flames die down. Whether a wood burning fireplace or a gas burning fireplace, heat radiated into the room escapes through the chimney. One does not notice this while the fire is burning brightly, because of the heat from the flames that radiates into the room.
However, when the fire starts to die down, the hearth becomes cold quickly as the heat escapes through the fireplace opening. To stop this from happening, a fireplace glass doors blocks the opening, keeping the warm air from leaving the room.
Aside from keeping the warm air from escaping, the doors act to keep the hearth clean just as a fireplace screen used to do in the olden days. With the doors closed, ashes and embers don't scatter about the room, keeping the carpet or rug clean and scorch-free. The doors also have built in devices that divert air towards the bottom of the fireplace. These vents make the fire burn brighter and easier to light.
While fireplaces accentuate the largeness of a room, the rooms do not all come in one size. For smaller rooms, like a child's bedroom, fireplaces were sometimes built in the corner of the room to exploit the space there. In fact, it is now easier to install a new fire place in the corner of a room because the fireplace walls could be tapered exactly just so in order to reflect the heat more efficiently into the room.
A corner fireplace door is somewhat smaller than an ordinary fireplace door. They usually come in the traditional accordion-type frame because of the limited space offered by the walls. In choosing a fireplace door from the rack, the purchaser has to ensure that the door is big enough to cover the widest area of the fireplace opening without covering the whole mantle design. The door should overlap the whole fireplace opening in order to serve its purpose, but should not keep the fireplace itself from being seen and admired.
Most fireplace glass doors are made of tempered glass with either ceramic or anodized aluminum frames. Glass is placed on the door so that the fire can still be appreciated even with the door closed. Most of these fireplace doors can be bought stock - meaning that most of the door that are for sale can be purchased off the rack and installed with minimal changes.
However, the designs on these doors are almost alike in such a way that they can all be described as "simple and elegant." And although these new simplistic designs would probably look good on modern fireplace designs, these may be incompatible with the rustic brick fireplaces. A masonry fireplace door would probably look better with a frame made to look like antique brass.
While other fireplace accessories look better when they are clean and shiny, the rustic charm of wrought iron or antique brass cannot be discounted. These metals on fireplace tools and door frames make them virtually maintenance-free because they do not have to be completely shiny to look good. However, these metals have a tendency to heat up, so it is highly recommended that a pair of kitchen mittens be kept nearby in case one has to open the hot doors.
As an aid in making a purchase, one should take a picture of the fireplace and hearth, along with the fireplace tools, and take it to the home improvement center. The picture will help the buyer visualize the room and select the right fireplace door to fit the decoration.
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