STOVES AND FIREPLACES W hile the dark days of winter may still seem far away, there’s no time like the present to start making your dreams for the perfect fireplace or stove a reality before the mercury drops. Creating a welcoming hearth that exudes warmth and comfort takes careful planning, and a glance into the options for stoves and fireplaces on today’s market shows that choosing a heat source is no longer a decision based purely on practicality – they are a bold interior design statement in their own right. “Stoves and fireplaces are having a real moment,” says Joe Burton, an interior expert from The Brick Tile Co. “There has been a clear move away from the standard mantel-and-surround composition towards fireplaces that feel more like architectural elements – whether embedded into walls, suspended from ceilings or even used as spatial dividers in open-plan layouts.” Where the hearth is When it comes to incorporating a fireplace into a wider design scheme, several trends are currently turning up the heat. A preference for sculptural silhouettes and expressive colours is seeing stoves become the focal point of a room, rather than a background appliance. Laura Dadswell is the director of Westland London, home to an extensive curated antique fireplace collection. “It feels like a really joyful moment for fireplace design,” she says. “One of the most noticeable shifts is a return to coloured marbles. People are using colour with so much more confidence across their interiors, and that naturally draws them towards marbles and stones that make a statement in their own right, or work beautifully with tones already in a scheme.” For Arada, a stove manufacturer based in Devon, black remains a practical and popular choice; but earthy shades such as terracotta, clay, green and warm neutrals are also being embraced, with more customers choosing brighter colours to turn the stove into the focal point. “Our Bold Edit colours, including Flamingo pink,
CLEAN LIVING Island Pellet Stoves (above) offers efficiency and low emissions with burners that use pellets made from sawdust and waste wood
62 SEPTEMBER 2026 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
Powered by FlippingBook