Is this a wood burning fireplace? If so, I prefer the sliding design for easy access. I find it cumbersome to deal with swinging doors and firewood.
Also, if it's wood burning, you'll need a hearth rug (or hearth) to catch any embers that may pop out.

Option one...but perhaps with brushed nickel/chrome rather than brass. (To match the other metal I see in the room) Black would probably work as well. Clean, functional...true to the style in the room.

I love your house and would enjoy seeing more of it! There are more and more modern/MCM folks on these boards every day.

Option #1 is more old-school MCM. It is also flush and doesn't require swinging the screens into the room. But it wouldn't do much to keep kids from the flames.

Option #2 is more modern-looking, and more of a barrier if there are kids.

Thanks for the opinions! Of course you all are picking the cheaper option, so I'm loving it! There are kids, of course...but I'm kind of banking on the layout preventing them from being directly in front of the fireplace while rough housing.

mjsee - if the floor is tile, why do I need a hearth rug? I am honestly asking...I don't have much experience with fires/fireplaces, so I don't know what's required. One thought I did have was to get a pull-out tray below the grate to catch ash to try to keep the wall around it cleaner when we have to clean out the ash.

jakabedy - you can see a little of the house in my clippings - it's a 50's ranch, not a MCM, but we tend to keep things pretty cleanlined.

Thanks, guys!

Deb

jakabedy beat me to it :) I'll go look at your clippings. We're going to do a walnut wrap around some freestanding PAX closets in our bedroom - your pic is inspiration to be sure.

The 1st option would be a good visual deterrent, and definitely a flying-ash-deterrent from the other direction, but you might want it in black unless you want to call attention to it.

Functionally: hinged doors, unless they have a stay on the hinge, can be a PITA when trying to work inside the firebox, say, when rearranging logs...they'd be hot and rather a bother.

Is that just drywall on the face of the firebox opening? I'm not sure that's to code. . . and I'm thinking it's going to get dirty and sooty and gouged when you're putting wood in and taking ash out. I love those elevated fireplaces, but they're usually not wood-burning. Have you considered tiling around the firebox? Maybe with some slate, or a glass mosaic?

It's not drywall - you're right, that wouldn't be up to code at all! It's plaster, which is perfectly fine up to the edge of a fp. I feel like tile would totally throw off the symmetry.

We don't do a lot of fires, just a couple of times a year (we live in Dallas, very mild winters.) I am trying to make it easier to keep clean, but we can also be pretty careful when we do make fires. I was thinking about getting a tray for under the grate to gather the ash...surely that will make it easier to clean?

Hi - love your style. Can you tell me what your gray tile is. I'm looking for a similar color gray.