Fireplace Screen Safety

There are dozens of accessories available for fireplaces, but one of the simplest and most practical ones is the fireplace screen. Unlike the fireplace door, the screen is not attached to your fireplace, which means that the number of available styles is virtually endless. You can get a fireplace screen in a number of materials that you wouldn’t want in a fireplace door, but you’ll still receive a lot of the same safety features with a screen.

The screen’s main purpose is twofold: one, they keep children and pets out of the fireplace; and two, they keep the fire inside of the fireplace. Fires often throw sparks or embers outside of the firebox, which could potentially harm someone or start a fire in your house (which is why you should be sure that any fabrics and carpets near your fireplace are protected from the flames).

The size of the screen is important to think about, as you want the screen to be as wide as the fireplace opening so that no sparks make it out of the fireplace. The screen should also be tall enough to do the same, though it doesn’t have to be as tall as the entire opening of the fireplace. A potentially important but often overlooked consideration is the weight of the screen. For many of us, this is luckily not an issue. But for some, moving a heavy fireplace screen can be a chore or even dangerous, in which case choosing a lightweight screen is probably the best option.

Because you have so many options when choosing a fireplace screen, you might want to consider getting a fireplace screen and matching fireplace tools– or match the fireplace screen to an existing tool set you already own. Additionally, because there are so many options, you should have no problem finding a screen that matches your existing decor. There are a variety of styles and finishes to choose from, from antique brass designs to stained glass screens and each style will interact with the light from the fire in different ways.