Indoor Fireplaces

An indoor fireplace is a fixed fire feature built into a wall, hearth or feature surround, rather than a freestanding piece you can move room to room. Fireside Boutique stocks 39 of them from EcoSmart Fire and Planika, running on bioethanol or water vapour with no chimney, flue or gas line, from £895 to £12,395. Free UK mainland delivery.

Read the full indoor fireplace buying guide

Freestanding units, or built-in?

Planika's Arcticon and Bubble are freestanding bioethanol fireplaces you position against a wall; Steamy and Misty use the same freestanding form with a water vapour flame instead of a real one. EcoSmart Fire's Designer range (Mini T, Ghost, Igloo, Orbit, Be, T-Lite, Pop, Pillar) is also freestanding, sized as a room's focal point rather than tucked into an opening. Their Flex and Fireplace Inserts ranges go the other way: these install into a stud wall or masonry opening as a genuine built-in, with no visible housing once fitted.

Bioethanol or water vapour

Every EcoSmart model here runs on bioethanol: a real flame, real radiant heat, and fuel you top up by hand. Planika's Arcticon and Bubble do the same. Steamy and Misty use ultrasonic water vapour lit from below instead, so the flame is a visual effect with no heat and no fuel to buy - the right choice if the fire is there to be looked at, particularly around children or pets. Every EcoSmart indoor-rated model is certified to EN 16647, the UK and EU safety standard for indoor bioethanol fireplaces.

Sizing an insert into an existing opening

If you are replacing a gas or wood-burning fireplace, measure the existing opening before choosing an EcoSmart Flex or Fireplace Insert model - the Flex range in particular spans a wide run of widths (18SS up to 158SS) specifically so a like-for-like swap is possible without rebuilding the surround. Check the minimum room size stated on each product page: bioethanol combustion consumes oxygen, so every indoor-rated model states a floor figure for the room it will sit in.

Honest trade-offs

A bioethanol fireplace will not heat a room the way a gas fire or a stove does, and the fuel is an ongoing cost you would not have with mains gas. Refuelling has to happen cold, which interrupts a long evening. A water vapour unit removes both problems and gives no warmth in exchange. There is no gas-fired option in this shape at Fireside Boutique - EcoSmart's natural gas models are built for outdoor and covered installations, not indoor fireplaces.