Learn How to Decorate Your Fireplace Mantel

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Many people find it difficult to be comfortable and loosened in their home. This is because it does not reflect who they are as a person. The way to fix this is to beautify the home with decorations that mean something to you.

One of the greatest areas of most home is the fireplace. The fireplace is regarded to be the focus of the room that it is in. It is also the one thing that visitors will find first. When decorating your home you also need to embellish your fireplace mantel.

Decorating your fireplace mantel is a great thing to do because it serves to add character to the room as well as the other parts of the home. There are dozens of themes and ways that you can utilize to decorate the fireplace mantel and every one of them are easy and creative.

Most mass will set pictures of their family and their childhood on the mantel. When people walk over to get a better look at the fireplace they will instantly observe the pictures and marvel at how precious your children are or how stunning you looked on your wedding day. This also makes for a tremendous conversation starter.

Some people might settle to be more ornamental with their brick fireplace mantel and will instead add a variety of candles and spices. One great thing you can do is to use similar types of candles at contrasting heights and in a descending order. You can also place some greenery on it to provide it a bit of an earthly look to it.

The best time to adorn your fireplace mantel is during the holidays. During this time the possibilities are constant. Christmas is the time where many of us like to decorate as much as we can. When decorating for this time you can put lighted garland around the top of the fireplace mantel and let it fall a quarter of the length down each side. On the top of the middle of the mantel you can set the manger set or scented Christmas candles - which will be surrounded by the garland.

The best thing to do when decorating your mantel fireplace is to set on it the things that show who you are. This is a part of your home and you must feel comfortable with it.

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Baby Proofing Your Fireplace - How a Few Simple Ideas Could Protect Your Baby

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Baby Proofing Your fireplace

The fireplace is often the center point of a lounge in a home and so lots of time could be spent here. This may be a dangerous area for young children to be around and so here are a few ideas on how to implement baby proofing around your fireplace.

First, before you can baby proof your fireplace; take note of how your baby sees the fireplace. This may require you to get onto your knees and look at it from their point of view. Take note of what could be dangerous in the view of the baby.

Make the hard edges of the fire place softer so that they are not hazards to your baby. Hearth pads can be purchased to do this. This is so your baby will not hurt themselves if they fall on the hard edges of the fireplace.

Hearth guards are used to cover the entire hearth surface from young children who may be able to reach this area. These can be custom made to fit the size of your health, or can be bought a few standard sizes which perform the same task. These, used together with hearth pads are the best option when it comes to baby proofing your fireplace.

Lock the fireplace doors so that your baby cannot access them. This is where you should store all your fireplace needs such as fire starters and matches. It is important to keep these dangerous objects away from your baby. Door guards can also be purchased for this step if you cannot lock the doors.
Installing a fireplace gate will also help you baby proof your fireplace in an easier way. These are available from baby shops, along with the door guards previously mentioned.

As a general guideline, keep young children away from open fires is a good plan. Sparks fly and these can create harmful burns on young skin. It is probably a better idea to introduce children to camp fires and cooking with fire when they are older than 5 years of age.

Controlled fires within the home account for 36% of household fires each year which is a scary number. Rather opt for other heating solutions such as heaters and air conditioning if you have small children or babies.

Using a metal mesh screen to cover the fireplace is essential in any home. This stops sparks from flying in different directions and possibly causing a problem in the home.

These are just a few baby proofing fireplace tips when it comes down to baby proofing your fireplace but please be aware that it is essential for any parent to be extra careful while their young child or baby is in the presence of any openly controlled fire.

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Faux Fireplace Mantel For Your Apartment

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It is Thanksgiving and you are getting ready to leave your 1000 square foot apartment and go see your family for the holidays. You know as soon as you get home mom is going to have you go to the basement and pull out all the decorations. Then it dawns on you, "Why can't I have a mantel to decorate for Christmas? Just because I don't have a fireplace does not mean I can't have a mantel." fireplaces and mantels are at their best around the holidays. Fully decorated, they bring back childhood memories of the good old days at Christmas.

So let's get started trying to determine how to get a mantel for this Christmas. One of the best ways to search for a fireplace mantel is to look online. Many mantel manufacturers can help you with this, as most of these sites always seem to have a clearance page. Another great place to find mantels is on eBay. Some of my best purchases have come from eBay. Remember when you're shopping to take shipping charges into account.

What size will I need? The mantel should not have a large inside opening width and height: about 40" to 46" inside width and about 39" to 42" inside height. 52" to 55" is a good overall height for a mantel surround. With so many design styles to choose from it may be hard to determine what style is right for you.

Now that you have ordered your mantel it is time for your installation. Usually installation instructions and hardware are included in the box. One obstacle you might have to overcome during installation is deciding whether or not to cut out your baseboard. If you don't cut out your baseboard you can notch the bottom of the outside mantel leg or the return so your mantel will be flush with the wall.

Next, paint the wall on the inside of the mantel black. You can even purchase a fireplace screen and place it in front of the mantel for a realistic fireplace look. Fireplace mantels, fireplace mantel shelves and other fireplace accessories do not always end up around a fireplace, be imaginative. Don't be afraid to explore other options when it comes to decorating. You can find plenty of decorating ideas on the web and in home magazines.

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Convert Your Wood-Burning Fireplace to an Ethanol-Burning Fireplace

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If you have a fireplace, how about converting it to an ethanol burner? Even if you have a firepit outdoors, you can use ethanol as your source of heat.

There has been a drive in recent years to find more environmentally friendly fuels and ones available from sustainable sources, and the talk has eventually come around to the amount of pollution we create when we burn wood in our fireplaces or in our outdoor fireplaces or fire pits. What an idea! Ethanol is certainly a better alternative than natural gas, electricity, or propane for your fireplace. Gas logs and electric fireplaces have become increasingly popular in recent years for obvious reasons. People love their fireplaces and don't want to give them up, but they want to shift away from the burning of wood.

In the first place, a wood fire is dirty. It's almost impossible to avoid a mess around the fireplace that has to be cleaned up every time we use it, not to mention all the smoke and soot. We are told that it's wise to have it cleaned every year before we use it. If we clean it ourselves, we look like a chimney sweep with soot from top to toe, and that stuff is hard to wash away. On the other hand, if we hire a chimney sweep, it costs an arm and a leg even if we can find one.

So maybe the time has come to get real. Say you decide to give up on the wood-burning fireplace, but you want to continue to use it, especially on cold, wintry days. Sitting by the fire and reading is a special pleasure. Inviting friends in for an evening and warming the event both physically and psychologically with a fire in the fireplace adds so much to the pleasure of good friends and good food.

So what are the options?

Gas-burning fireplace insert. These can be obtained with "logs" that look real and the flame looks like the real thing. This is about as close as you can get to the real thing. If you have a fireplace, you can use that vent to keep the fumes out of the house. You can purchase a propane tank and burn propane gas. These are usually buried underground so that only you know that your fireplace is not a real wood-burning one. However, you can also use natural gas. You will need to hire a professional to do the installation, of course, but you'll pay for the fuel when you pay your regular gas bill.

A more environmentally friendly option is the ethanol fireplace. The fuel is liquid, and you can buy it on a subscription so it will be delivered to you at whatever intervals you request. It is typically sold by the one-liter bottle. You'll have the blessings of a fireplace without the mess of a wood fire and without the environmental compromise necessitated by a gas fire. Many dealers are selling ethanol fireplaces. Just get online and google "ethanol fireplace" and you'll be surprised at how many hits you get.

Copyright (c) 2009 Wes Fernley

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Indoor Fireplace Camp You Can Setup Today

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Indoor Camping Tricks

I'm the kind of person who enjoys camping. I like to camp out, watch the stars above and occasionally snap to mosquitos feasting over me. The best thing I like about camping is the camp fire -- the dancing orange flame, more like a tongue actually. The glow of everything around the fire is beauty to me.

But camping is discouraged when it's winter. It is understandable though, one might end up freezing outside. Nonetheless, no amount of snow stops me from enjoying my campfire -- when I can't camp out, I camp in.

Camping in can be really fun too (close to camping out), if one has prepared the necessary stuffs. So here, I have outlined the usual things I toss in before I go camping!

1. The fireplace

Now this can't be missing, the entire camp feeling emanates from the fire. Prepare your fireplace -- store in enough wood or gel to keep the fire burning. You can even decorate your indoor fireplace mantle with leaves or tree branches to have that "outdoor" feeling. Just make sure you are observing proper safety measures (you don't want to end up burning your house). Clear the front area near your indoor fireplace so that you can set up your camp there.

2. The Tent

Well, one can really be on the go even without the real thing -- blankets, carpets plus some pillows will do. But I don't discount the additional "outdoor" feel when you are using a real tent. When you have one, simply set it up close to the fireplace (but far enough to keep it from catching the fire). If you are into using blankets, tie a rope across your room (near the fireplace) and hang the blanket over the rope. Then secure the corners of the blanket by tying it close to the floor or you can just put weights on each corner and try to resemble a typical triangular tent shape.

Just throw in a lot of pillow and you are ready to go.

3. The Camp Food

Of course, inside your house you can actually just use your stove or microwave to cook food fast, but it will ruin the entire "outdoor" feel. So the best thing to do is to prepare some camp food. I don't know what makes up your camp food, but for me it's simple marshmallows, hot dogs and marinated barbecue. Sometimes I roast burger patties. Plus some root beer or cola. But you can use alternatives -- hot choco drink, coffee, tea or just about anything you want to drink.

4. The Music

Turn your i-pod on! I used to include cricket sounds in my playlist (I think that was too much outdoor). Keep your speaker volume low, so that you will still have the consciousness to admire the fire and the roasting. From my experience, loud music can be a source of distraction -- instead of enjoying my indoor camping I end up staging my own concert.But you can either choose between indoor camping and indoor concert, actually. Any will do.

5. The Company

Although you can camp alone, it will be really nice to have someone camping with you. Your company can be your family, friends or your sweetheart. It's more fun to hear ghost stories or play spin-the-bottle by the fireplace, and you know you can't do that alone. Make the indoor camping experience a good memory you can look back into someday.

So, there! You have set-up for yourself your very own indoor camp. Invite me in sometimes, I really love camping.

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24" Chrome Cooking Grate For 30" Fire Pits

24" Chrome Cooking Grate For 30" Fire Pits Review

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PANACEA PRODUCTS CORP 15424 CAST IRON FIREPLACE GRATE 24" - BLACK

PANACEA PRODUCTS CORP 15424 CAST IRON FIREPLACE GRATE 24" - BLACK Review

Item is "grate"! Sturdy and strong. Arrived promptly and in excellent condition. Love ordering thru Amazon.

PANACEA PRODUCTS CORP 15424 CAST IRON FIREPLACE GRATE 24" - BLACK Feature

• Size: 24"
• 6" H x 24" W x 15" D.
• Fireplace Grate
• Color: Black.
• Cast Iron.

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