A Place For The Fireplace – Hour 2

But before then, my better half, my in studio partner here, Tina, has something to say.

than others. And and I would say most of them, most of them don't clear the bar in my mind of what I would want to do. But there there are, you know, a couple three out there that are like, hey, you know what, that's kind of cool. That kind of works and gives it, you know, enough of the effect. So just be really persnickety and picky when it comes to that if you really wanted to go all out for I mean, here's the thing. There's two kinds of

electric fireplace. One is you know, I'm not going to recommend it to you just because of its cost prohibitive nature, but it's one that uses and I don't think it would fit into a smaller space like that anyway. But it's one that actually uses a real video screen, not mounted like you would think that you're staring at straight away, but mounted up inside. And then there's an angled piece of glass and it's what we call the Pepper's ghost effect, and you actually get that the real flames, a video

of real flames superimposed onto a log set. It looks about as realistic as anything possible could when it's just a plug in fireplace. It's the same effect that they use at the Hanta Mansion at Disneyland when you see the ghosts dancing around in the Dyning room, what they call Pepper's ghosts. So that flame overlaid onto it. Amazing

but very expensive. Now second to that, and this is a more realistic would be like an optimist Optimist fireplace which actually uses a small reservoir of water and creates a vapor okay that is backlit by led lights that look incredibly realistic flame wise, because it is a natural flow, but it's it's water vapor, and no, it doesn't get everything wet around it. It's very you know, it's really

fine particulated water vapor. But check that out look that up online optimists, and those come in various sizes, including small enough to fit in what you're talking about. So anyway, that's the actual My recommendation is are super realism when it comes to that. I don't think you can do better than those two things, but I would say the optimist works probably best in your situation. The other thing is as far as position. Now that you're free to do whatever you want to do, the big question is

what's the best viewing angle? And so a sight unseen for me in the room, I can't make that decision for you, but I'll tell you this. If you're starting from scratch again and you're free to put it wherever you want to put it, then consider where you will be in the room, what you will be doing, what you will be looking over, in order to actually see

the fireplace effect. And that's why, quite often, I would say more than fifty percent of the time, when we're redoing a fireplace, we will often put the new one is in elevated up, even in a living room, elevated up off the floor, so that it can be seen over the coffee table and take in that and the TV that you're watching at the same time or in

a bedroom, especially in a bedroom. Fireplaces around the floor in a bedroom are useless to you when you're in bed because you can't see them because you're in bed. But if you raise them up thirty inches or so, then they're viewable. And in a kitchen as well, if you're going to be enjoying it from the kid, just consider sight lines and then place the fireplace in its optimal viewing positions so that you get the most out of the work that you do.

because it's going to be way too expensive. They can it could be done, but you don't want to waste the money of doing that. But curving that upper the upper counter where people are sitting, you'll not only will you get more counter space if it works and you really like that idea, you'll get more counter space, it sounds like you also get a better flow with it as well. That again, of course sight unseen. But that's

my best encouragement. I want to I always want to encourage you guys to reach out, stretch out, and do bold design and just double and triple check to make sure that you're not taking it somewhere that you don't want it to go. Pamela, thank you so much for the call and for the question. Appreciate you and thanks for listening to the show. All right, y'all, when we come back, let's talk more about these fireplaces of ours. We will do it. Hey, Fie, team Sharp the house Whisper,

thanks for joining us on the program. This morning been a little bit of an odd morning. We got a late start simply because of some technical difficulties. So much I want to tell you about fireplaces. Let's dive back into that topic here. We've turned the corner into November. Time to start thinking warm and cozy. But here's the thing.

You live in southern California. You live in the state of California, and you may or may not know that California, as far as new construction or major remodels, no new wood burning fire places, right unless with one exception. There

is one exception, and it's a good one. It's a good exception that would be in most areas, you can get by with a wood burning a wood stove or pellet stove, a pellet stove specifically, now a pellet stove that's not for cooking food, per se, but it is a kind of wood burning fireplace that's super efficient, all enclosed but lovely, and you end up getting this, you know,

it's like a Franklin stove. It's like a pot belly kind of a stove situation, that type of fireplace sitting out in a room, which I think is immensely beautiful and very very efficient and can work with a lot of classic decor and style as we go. So just know that. But otherwise, no new word burning fireplace. And now if you've got a wood burning fireplace, which a lot of people misunderstand, you know, so let me just clarify.

You may have a masonry fireplace that has a gas log set sitting in it and has never seen a piece of wood in its entire life. And I've had, you know, I've pointed this out to a client. I'm like, oh, you got a wood burning fireplace?

burning fireplace. It's still capable of doing that. When it comes to prefabricated fireplaces, as we were mentioning before, there are both gas and wood burning prefabricated fireplaces. Don't assume just because you've got a gas log set sitting in there that it can't burn wood. Now, some of them can't, some of the prefabricateds can't. So the question is how do we know, Dean, Well, chances are ninety nine percent if you've got a masonry fireplace or real masonry fireplaces,

it's capable of burning wood. Excuse me, when it comes to the prefabricated fireplace and you're not sure, don't just take out that gas set and put in logs, but call a fireplace company and talk to them about it. Have a chimney sweep service come out and take a look at it, analyze it, and they'll be able to tell you, sorry, I have a little bug in my throat.

that long since we started the show. Eight years ago, I used to pooh pooh the direct vents because honestly, they just weren't up to snuff. As far as real features in a room, that has changed, and I'll tell you all about it. You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty, KFI AM sixty live streaming at HD everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You have found yourself Home with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper. Thanks for joining us on the program this morning. So

glad that you are with us. We're talking about fireplaces. I'm giving you pearls of wisdom about this thing that has been so iconically central in homes since homes first existed. In fact, we could make the argument and we would be correct that fireplaces pre date homes as far as

human dwellings. The discovery of fire, the utilization of fire that started out as the tribal fire and then became the source of cooking and gathering and storytelling and eventually made its way from just outside your little hut to inside your hut and then literally, for tens of thousands of years, became the very center of what it means

to have a home. Still these days, we no longer depend on modern homes on fireplaces to heat our homes everywhere, in every room, unless you know, I've got a traditional cabin or something like that going on. But the modern home has gone past the need for a fireplace if you don't want a fireplace, And yet most of the US still have a fireplace in our home. And what are we going to do with it? And that's what

I'm trying to help you with this morning. Okay. So I was saying before the break that in the state of California, and it's not going to be long before this is, you know, all across our great nation, in one form or another, wood burning fireplace is because of what they do and because of smoke and all of these issues. In California, not a thing that you can

put in a new home or a major remodel. And also just the standard gas log prefabricated fireplace that I was telling you about also not a thing that can happen in California. So if you live in California like we do, what are your options? Your options are the direct vent fireplace, a much maligned, partially for its own fault, and much misunderstood fireplace. So a couple of myths when it comes to direct vent fireplaces. One is that they don't burn gas, that they're electric. Not true. These are

gas burning fireplace gas real flames. Okay when they say when people say, oh, it's not real, well it's as real as your gas log fireplace that's sitting in your traditional firebox. So real flames, real flame effect, all of that eighteen hundred kelvin psychological effects because you've got a real flame going on there. So not true. These are gas burning fireplaces. Secondly, another myth is that they don't

put out any heat. Absolutely not true. The fact is direct vent fireplaces are fall are more heat efficient than traditional fireplace. Is way way more heat efficient a wood fireplace, traditional wood fireplace as far as energy efficiency, and that means the amount of fuel that's being consumed and the heat that's being produced there getting into the room ten percent, Yeah, massively inefficient. Most of that heat is going up the

chimney right out of the house. Okay, gas fireplaces in a traditional fireplace setting, if you put a gas log set in with ceramic, good ceramic logs, that's a vast improvement that gets you up to about fifty percent efficiency for fuel versus your heating ability. But a direct vent fireplace, because it's a sealed, enclosed, engineered system, ninety percent plus

efficiency on most direct vent fireplaces. And so yes, there's a glass front on a direct vent fireplace, but that creates a heat chamber inside that then radiates through that glass into the room. Most direct vent fireplaces blow traditional

fireplaces away as far as their cozy heating factor. In fact, many of them are designed in such a way that there are additional fans and venting that gives you the option of not having too much heat going into the room, so we blow that heat off up the chimney and or out other vents that are controlled and dampered, so you can control how much heat is coming into the room and how much of it is actually coming out

of the firebox itself directly. So a total myth that direct vent fireplates don't provide sufficient heat for a room. Most of them provide a lot of it, more than a traditional and then only this is the last myth, maybe the most important one to blow up, is that they only come in these ultra modern long linear flame with a mirror background and fire glass at the bottom and fancy lights, and that's the only kind you can get.

And that used to be the case. But it's been a long time since that has not been the case. They have improved massively. Like I said before the break, you know, I when when California made the law saying, hey, we can only put in direct vent fireplaces, I was sad and dismayed, not from the concept behind it, but just the fact that that I hate it when when bureaucracy stepped forward with a thing when the technology isn't there to actually accommodate it, and they then direct vent

fireplaces back then just weren't there. They were just not good, mediocre at best. But nowadays, nowadays, I'm happy to put them in. Now, you got to understand, there's still a lot of mediocre ones out there, a lot of them out there, okay, that are just like you know, and still charging you a lot of money for them. So you gotta shop this carefully. You got to really scrutinize them. Don't just look at the photo of the flame that they've show you on their catalog pages, because those things

aren't accurate at all. You want to see video of these fireplaces grunning, and ideally you want to get somewhere where you can see it firsthand for yourself. Okay, but they have improved massively. You don't have to have the long linear ones, although these are super cool. By the way, if you do have a contemporary vibe. We can now put in a fireplace in a home or anywhere, a linear fireplace that can be anywhere from twenty four inches long to twenty four feet long. I mean, it's amazing

what we can do with these fireplaces. But what about the traditional look. Well, one of the big problems before was the fact that the flames were low and they were just sitt there at the bottom, and the log sets look very plastic. Not Now there are some great brands out there. I want to check out Flair. Go to Flare, Okay, one of my favorite directvent manufacturers right now. Flair. I think I don't know if it's Flairfireplace dot com

or just Flare, but look that up. Flare fireplaces, and look for the gas log set in which the gas lines are actually run inside the logs and the flames emit from the log So talk about uber hyper realistic, more realistic than your gas log set that's sitting in your traditional one where the gases the flames are coming out from the bottom and just lick around the logs. No, these logs are quote unquote on fire and that allows the flame to be lifted up in the firebox and

for a beautiful, beautiful presentation. And this is the way of things. But you got to shop it carefully and find the right ones.

a couple of things. Number one Tomorrow Tomorrow, the big show. From nine to noon, we're gonna be talking about decoor details in your house, details that matter, how much details matter. And this is great for everybody. Why because you know what they do matter and sometimes they make all the difference in the world. And the cool thing about details mattering so much is that they usually don't cost that much, So if you do them right, you can get a big bang for a little buck along the way. So

that's tomorrow's show. Don't miss it. Details that Matter from nine to noon, live right here tomorrow. Also, just to remind you, we've got a video that made this morning. Just threw it up onto our social media. It's there for those of those of you who follow us on social media, and if you don't, you should go do it right now anywhere well, Instagram, Facebook, x, TikTok it's on all of them. Home with Dean. While you're there, follow us, share the video. It's fun. It's four secrets

the house whispers. Four secrets to a great gas log fireplace, and that, of course, is what we've been talking about this morning. One last reminder to you, set the clocks to fall back tonight if they don't just automatically do it digitally like half of them do in our house. Now tonight, we're falling back an hour. You get an extra hour sleep, and it'll be a little lighter tomorrow morning than it was today, which you know, I have

mixed feelings about. So there you go. Anyway, last couple of thoughts on fireplaces for you today before we're out of here. Number one. Uh, if you've got a masonry fireplace and you you you're now inspired, You're like, you know what, Let's let's get that thing going again. Let's maybe we're not going to burn wood, but let's get a good gas log set like Dean said, and uh, and get it up and running again if it hasn't been running for a long time, even if it has.

Either way, get it inspected, all right, Masonry fireplaces should be inspected, you know, once every ten years or so. As far as looking for cracks up inside the flu, it's not a big deal.

of wood, yeah, that's a good idea. If you've got a gas log set every two or three years, you said, still have the flu cleaned out and cleared out. And here last thing for you, and these are pearls. Even if you don't burn fires in your fireplace, and you're not planning on getting rid of your fireplace, so you don't have a budget to get rid of your fireplace. And it's right there, sitting right there in the living room, in the family room. Keep it a focal point. Fill

it with loveliness, Get creative. How about a bank of pillar candles inside that firebox? How about plants or flowers inside the firebox? How about books? What a great, cool, funky way to store books inside the firebox. I've seen aquariums inserted into unused fireplaces in fireboxes. Really really cool idea. And you know what, most fireplaces, based on how they're situated in the room, If they're clean and they're lovely,

and they've been taken care of. Makes a great pet bed corner for the dog or the cat, especially the dogs though, so you got a lot of options. Think out of the box. If you've got a fireplace that you're not going to burn, actually have a flame in, then keep it a focal point, make it special, make it important. And that's what we're all about here on the show, helping you transform your ordinary house into an extraordinary home with the resources that you have on hand.

All right, be creative because design matters most all right, y'all. That's it for us today. We will see you back here tomorrow for the big show Sunday morning. Details that matter from nine to noon. Until then, get out in this gorgeous fall November Saturday and get busy building yourself a beautiful life. We'll see you all tomorrow. This has

been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.