EXTENSIONS: Adding a woodburning stove or fireplace

One of the best things about extending your home is the opportunity it presents to include ‘feel good features’ that add a touch of magic. One product that perfectly combines slick interior design with a sense of homeliness is a woodburning stove, either freestanding or set within a fireplace.

Owners of new stoves can be surprisingly evangelistic, often raving about them as ‘brilliant’ and ‘giving off an incredible amount of heat’. But of course, not all extensions lend themselves to flames dancing merrily in grates. For example, this probably isn’t an option if you’re enlarging your kitchen or if the newly extended space needs to be ultra compact and functional. And in properties which already have an existing disused fireplace it’s normally simpler and cheaper to explore the option of bringing it back to life. Nonetheless, many homes are crying out for some sort of focal point, so installing a woodburning stove or building a new fireplace can be the perfect solution.

Now, stick with me on this one, but one thing that fireplaces have in common with