Berkeley's Love Hate Relationship with the Fireplace

A Hearth is a Home

Our love of fireplaces, hearths and mantles is deep and ancient. If we have fire we can keep warm, we can make bread, we can care for our loved ones. I rarely find a home buyer that doesn't require a hearth in the living room. "Oh, I don't plan on burning wood in it, I just want it!"

Hearth and Heart both derive meaning from the Old English root hoerte, and we just don't want to move our families into a home without a heart.

So even though wood burning fireplaces are not green at all, and they are put greenhouse gasses into our air, we can't seem to live without them. Actually, I feel the same way, but love the look of lit candles at a range of heights to offer up the glow of a fire without the same carbon level. For best indoor air quality, choose unscented beeswax candles.