KEEPING THINGS COZY

Our very 70s entryway (with shoe clutter)

Today's chilly temps have me thinking about fireplaces.  Warm, cozy fireplaces that make winter in Wisconsin bearable.  Our home already has two wood-burning fireplaces and we recently added an electric fireplace in the living room.  It's the fireplace we now use the most.  'Cuz all you have to do is flip a switch and there's instant heat!  We love it and our cats love it too.

Best of all, it helped solve a problem with our front entry.  The original half-wall in the front entry was really dated-looking, with dark wood spindles. Overall, it made the front entry look cramped and unwelcoming.

It also jutted out into the entry and it's "L" shape left an awkward space in the living room that was hard to work with.  

Our desk fit just fine but it wasn't a good spot for a work space

Our big disappointment was finding that the natural slate floor didn't cover the entire entry, which meant we couldn't move the wall without replacing the slate tiles already there.  We knew we didn't want to replace the floor due to budget constraints and since we were unable to locate affordable matching tiles to expand the floor, we decided to keep the half-wall where it was.  That definitely sucked, but after tossing around some ideas (including making it a built-in seating area with storage), we saw electric fireplaces on sale in a sales flyer and it just clicked.   A fireplace in the living room would be awesome and would give the half-wall a reason to exist!

We ripped out the half-wall (spindles and all), finding some long-dead desiccated mouse carcasses in between the studs.  Ew!  We put in a new half-wall, faced with stone veneer, topped with a lovely stained wood top made by a friend.  Yes, it still cuts into the entryway space, but visually, it doesn't look as dark and confined as it did before and I like how the stone veneer echoes the colors of the slate floor.

We didn't center the fireplace insert so you could have nearby seating without blocking the heat flow It's probably not even a real issue but I was worried about heat buildup in the wall. Just to be safe, we installed a vent on the other side of the wall, spray-painting it so it blends with the stone veneer.  We now use this fireplace a lot, way more than the other fireplaces.

The final project for this is a custom-made narrow bench with shoe storage for the backside of the half wall to tackle that clutter in the entryway.