It’s that time of the year, when it’s good to look beautiful. Whether you’re off to the works Christmas party, hosting an event, or pulling out all the stops for an unforgettable Christmas Day at home, you’ll want to look and feel great.
It’s the same for your stove – especially if you are having any form of celebrations in your home. Your stove will be a focal point, (or a close second behind the Christmas tree), and so you should ensure it looks as good as it can.
After all there is nothing worse than an unloved feature point in a room.
Here are some Stove Beauty Tips to ensure your stove looks amazing, and does it’s job perfectly over the festive season:
A Clean Stove is a Happy Beautiful Stove – A very simple tip here is to make sure your stove is clean. This can include having it swept by an approved chimney sweep if it’s not been done so recently, and also ensuring the inside and outside of the firebox clean. It’s a simple beauty tip. Having a clean fire window will really help draw attention to the flames, which will not be hidden by unsightly black creosote deposits.
You can use specialist stove glass window cleaner for this, also vinegar can be used. Perhaps not as well know or conventional – ash applied with wet newspaper can be a great way to clean the window on a stove. Once you have cleaned you can wipe clean with a damp cloth. Then when dry you can use a dry cloth to really buff up!
A Flame of Beauty – Beauty does not just start and end with a nice clean window, it goes much deeper. A stove needs to also be able to provide a beautiful flame. For starters you should only burn correctly seasoned wood. Furthermore you need to burn at least two logs at a time.
A single log not only looks lame, it’s much more likely to die out well before any substantial heat and flame magic has been produced. People expect a stove to produce an enchanting mix of flames.
Keep the Decorations Away – It’s kind of obvious really, never allow any tinsel or baubles to be close to the fire. This will be a sure fire way (no pun intended) to spoil the look of a stove, and melted Christmas decoration never look too good.
Top Down is Best – With this method you will start with a parallel arrangement of large pieces of wood across the floor of the burning chamber, then you stack more wood into a pyramid style, alternating between lengthwise and crosswise. At the top of the pyramid you will have fast burning kindling
When ready to light, simply light the top, stand back and watch the faster wood burn, and see it then naturally progress to the slower burning firewood. The stove will reach its perfect operating temperature quicker this way – a short cut to a beautiful flame!
Taking the time to make your stove beautiful for the festive season is a wise idea. Not only will it look great, it will also help with its efficiency and overall safe operation.
