Fireplace doors may not seem like an important part of your rental, but when you really think about, they are. Consider how often tenants use them in the winter when heating their home with the fireplace. Not to mention, they’re both functional and aesthetic, adding a different look and feel to the room and the house.
Don’t let your old, worn fireplace doors take away from the beautiful space you’ve created. Replace them with something modern, sleek and new.
Safety for Your Tenants and Their Children
If you’re currently using mesh doors for the fireplace, it’s time to replace them with something stronger and safer: glass or ceramic doors. Not only do these styles make it harder for a little one to fall in, but when closed, there’s also less temptation for pets or young children to go playing around in last-night’s ash.
Boost Aesthetic Feel of the Room
- Fireplace doors come in all different styles, colors, and materials. If you’ve repainted the living room, or updated furniture, swap out your fireplace doors to match. Here are a few aesthetic ideas to keep in mind when choosing your new doors:
- Type: There are cabinet doors (one piece, opens in the middle), bi-fold doors (split in half, and each half folds), bi-fold track (uses track, not hinge to function).
Style: Fireplace doors can come with all different finishes, including frame finishes, mesh screen, riser bars and tracks or no tracks.
The type of door you choose will depend on whether your fireplace is factory built or masonry. Factory built products are made of metal while masonry fireplaces are made with brick, cement and other natural stones. When you know what kind of fireplace you have, look for fun ways to make the new doors stand out, like with this DIY barn door style fireplace screen slider.
Less Cleaning Work for Tenants
If you’re going to replace your doors, spend a little extra to upgrade to pre-fab fireplace doors made with tinted glass. Not only is this look tactful and classic, the tinted glass will hide any mess in the fireplace:
“You're fireplace is the focal point of a room. But it’s also the dirtiest place in your house. One of the easiest ways to hide this is by adding glass doors to your fireplace,” says Sam Wilhoit of BrickAnew.
Wilhoit continues, “Fireplace doors with tinted glass are a wonderful way to hide the ashes from your fire of the night before. This means you don't have to clean up after your fire right away.” Check out this glass door replacement tutorial from This Old House for tips and tricks.
Increased Energy Efficiency
Fireplace doors were made with functionality in mind, one of the most important of which is energy savings. With high-quality fireplace doors, you can eliminate cool drafts from coming down the chimney, and keep warm air from escaping out—reducing the heating bill at the same time.
Energy efficiency is another reason to invest in glass doors as opposed to a screen. While a significant portion of the heat goes up and out of the chimney, glass doors absorb and radiate the heat into the room. This makes your fire more effective and efficient.
Fireplace doors may not seem like a worthy item to spend your minimal budget on, but quite the contrary. Replacing them will boost the look and feel of the room, along with safety and energy efficiency. As you prepare for more rental upgrades—don’t forget to add this one to your list.
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