Exploring Fireplace Screens: Then a Necessity, Now a Luxury

We have helmets for those who are fond of riding their motorcycles; we have shield for soldiers. Everywhere around us, gadgets that serve to bodily protect us surround us even though we do not realize it. When we walk inside the mall, for instance. The moment we get in, there are security guards standing by. Or emergency alarms or security devices may equip the mall. However way we wish to interpret it, it can never be said that we have been neglecting the area of safety in terms of the gadgets being invented.

Protection is one thing that is present and continuously evolving over time. Without things we call for safety measures, we would not know what damage something we do could bring us if it should happen. If we think about it, for every one thing that is invented or created, there is another thing that ensures it will function to the best of our advantage. And for the home, I give an example of this through the fireplace and the fireplace screen.

We need warmth. A source of warmth is the fire. And because winter is one of their seasons, most American homes have fireplaces where they could put in the fire and huddle close for warmth during the cold that the winter season brings. But just because you have the fireplace does not mean that it stops there. The fire can emit elements that at the least would inconvenience you, and at the most, would harm you or any member of your family. That is why, just like helmets for the motorcycle, we also have fireplace screens for fireplaces that serve as tool for protection.

Fireplace screens: then and now.

Fireplace screens are places just outside the opening of the fireplace, so that it serves as the outer layer of the fireplace. It basically functions to protect the people inside or who may come inside the room where the fireplace is in, when fire is burning in it. It keeps ash and smoke form coming out, so that you would not have to worry about these elements ruining your carpeting or your floor; now would you have to worry that your child might come in, lean close to the fire and be harmed with what it can emit. The fireplace screen also allows you to huddle near the hearth without being overwhelmed by the heat.

What I have just enumerated above on the uses of the fireplace screen were the very reasons that people catered to them back in the days that fireplaces were still the number one, if not the only one, source of heat for the cold season. The screen was a way to manage what the fire could emit and the heat it could bring forth; it thus stands to reason it was used mainly when there was a fire blazing. Nowadays, many people have stopped using the fireplace as a source of warmth. Modern heating systems has substituted it. However, most have seen the fireplace in a new aspect, its decorative aspect.

With the new use of the fireplace also came the new use for its screen. If in the past they were a necessity, today they are more of a luxury. People now choose fireplace screens for the appealing way that they can enhance the fireplace and the home. And, when chosen carefully, its decorative aspect truly shows. This is because there are a variety of types, designs and finishes of fireplace screens available today.

Of course, there are still some who cater to the screens for functional uses. But with the different designs out nowadays, you can choose the fireplace screen that would fit you and your home in two ways; both decorative and functional.

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