Fireplace Design For The A-Frame | Part I

Early in the design, I wanted something minimalist. I loved these examples of stunning plaster fireplaces that felt both modern and warm:

Now, of course, neither of these are gas and neither of them have a 75 inch TV above them. (I’ll save my rant on designers vs. TVs for another day.)

Whenever I start designing, I block out the space with approximately what I want. Over time it gets refined and more ‘real’. When I say real, I mean code compliant, resolved technically, properly sized and confirmed within budget. As a reminder, here is where we left off…

Not bad. You get a sense of the space, sizing and aesthetic direction but it’s not real yet. The next step was locking in specs for the TV, sconces and fireplace. The TV and sconces were easy. Since this is the focal point of the room I wanted something sleek and minimalist that didn’t sit too proud of the wall - Samsung Frame was the obvious answer. Check! On to the sconces… After much research (I could look at lighting for hours) I am 95% locked in on the Lantern Sconces from Apparatus Studio. Check!

Now, onto the fireplace specs. There are a lot of options out there and it can feel a bit overwhelming, especially when you’re looking for something minimal. With the heat that comes off of these gas fireplaces, having a TV above can be a real issue as we all know heat rises. There are lots of technical requirements about where combustible materials can and cannot be located and to what extent a mantel would need to protrude from the face of the wall to protect the TV. This varies from spec to spec so it’s best to pick out the fireplace and then work through the details.

We worked with Fireplace + Outdoor Living on Long Island (Ask for Bill and Kyle) and they were extremely helpful in working through the options with us. We had a long list of demands for the fireplace and realized we needed to compromise to keep the budget. One of the challenges we faced was having a realistic feeling fire and log set while having a linear/landscape viewing area. We found two options we liked and decided to test them out to see how we could make them work within our space and concept.

Option 1: Piet Boon Gas Fireplace by Stuv

This first option is a bit different than our original design intent but when they showed us this design I thought it was stunning. Stuv is a brand out of Belgium but has a US entity. We learned these are a bit hard to find in the US as the modern design is not as popular here as it is in Europe. This spec made the cut for several reasons:

• The flames look really good and not too linear in nature

• The logs feel more realistic than most

• The scale and modern detail of the metal felt right for our space

I didn’t even mind that it didn’t sit flush with the floor as I had originally intended - this one is just so beautiful as is! I love this fireplace and decided to pop it in the model and test it out…

Now I liked the way this looked but we’d risk damaging/voiding the warranty of the TV which explicitly states it is warranted up to 104 degrees F (this is something to check when coordinating your fireplace and tv setup). To resolve this, we would either need to recess the TV or extend the top of the fireplace out to act as a guard. I did not want to recess the TV ~8" for 2 reasons:

• Generally do not like the look for this space as we want to keep everything as streamlined as possible.

• There is nothing more irritating than needing a new TV and having it not fit right in the niche that was originally built. Inevitably we’ll need a new TV over the lifespan of the house so its something I did take into consideration.

I worked out a detail to add additional metal frame that would extend out to divert the heat coming off the front face of the fireplace and protect the TV. The intent of this detail was to match the additional metal extrusion to that of the fireplace so it looked like it was integrated as part of the original design. I threw in furniture to get a better sense of how it would feel in a more complete space:

With the added metal extrusion to protect the TV, i’m not loving it quite as much. If feels a bit clunky in the space and the corners/edges could be dangerous. Tabling this option for the moment…

Luckily I have another option to evaluate that is actually more in line with the original design intent though it will also need some modifications to meet the heat and venting requirements. Stay tuned for Part II where I share the second option and how we’re detailing it to accommodate all of the venting and heat requirements. Here’s a sneak peak of one of the versions: