Freestanding Gas Stoves & Sculptural Fireplaces
Fire as an object in the room. A stove that stands on its own, or a fireplace that hangs from the ceiling and turns to face you.
Fire you can walk around
Most fireplaces are part of a wall. These are not. A freestanding gas stove stands in the room on its own feet, or its own table, and heats it from every side; a sculptural fireplace hangs from the ceiling, pivots on a pole or sits in the middle of the floor and makes the room arrange itself around the fire. Both vent directly through the roof or the wall behind them, both burn gas, and both are chosen as much for their shape as for their heat.
Enviro’s Cube and S50 are the modern stoves: a square firebox on a table with the logs beside it, and a slim upright cylinder in black or white, 30,000 BTU each. Element4’s Ovation takes the oldest stove silhouette and rebuilds it as a sealed direct-vent gas fire with flame wrapped around cleaved wood logs. Focus, the French house of Dominique Imbert, makes the sculptures: suspended, pivoting, wall-mounted and free-standing fires in wood, gas and Holographik®. And Malm’s 34 Zircon is a California original, hand-formed steel in dozens of porcelain enamel colours.
A freestanding fire is decided by its vent and its floor. Where the flue can rise, what the clearances are to the wall and the furniture, what the floor under it has to be, and where in the room the fire wants to stand so it is seen from everywhere: Maxwell Fireplace works that out with you, chooses the model and the finish, plans the vent run to the maker’s drawings, pulls the permit, and installs the stove with our own crew. The hearth pad, the ceiling detail or the wall behind it we plan together with the trades doing it — yours, or ones we bring in. Send us a photograph of the room and we will tell you where the fire belongs.
The freestanding fires we feature
Each one has its own page. Read the story, then come and see it.
Element4 Ovation
The oldest stove silhouette rebuilt as a sealed, direct-vent gas fire — flame wrapped around true-to-nature cleaved wood logs, and engineered to still look beautiful turned right down.
Enviro Cube & S50
Two freestanding gas stoves, built in Saanichton, British Columbia — the square Cube on its table with the logs beside it, and the slim upright S50 in black or white. 30,000 BTU each, no wood.
Focus®
A family of sculptural fireplaces by Dominique Imbert — suspended, pivoting, wall-mounted and free-standing; wood, gas and Holographik®.
Malm 34 Zircon DV
A California original — hand-formed steel, direct-vent gas, dozens of porcelain enamel colours.
Questions people tend to ask
Does a freestanding gas stove need a chimney?
It needs a vent, which is smaller. A direct-vent stove takes its air from outside and sends its exhaust out through a sealed pipe, up through the roof or out through the wall behind it. There is no open chimney and no draught, and the pipe becomes part of the look.
Can a fireplace really hang from the ceiling?
Yes. Focus’s suspended fires hang from a flue that doubles as their support, and the pivoting models turn to face whichever part of the room you are in. The ceiling has to carry it and the flue has to run straight up, which is why we look at the structure before anything else.
How much heat do they give?
A freestanding stove heats from every side, so a modest output goes a long way. Enviro’s Cube and S50 are 30,000 BTU each, enough for most living rooms, and most of the fires here turn down for a mild evening.
Where in the room should it go?
Where it can be seen from the most places and vented most simply, which is not always the same spot. A stove against an outside wall vents through the wall behind it; one in the middle of the room goes up through the roof. We draw both before we recommend one.
A fireplace is only half of it. The other half is who places it.
Maxwell Fireplace is North Vancouver’s Creative FireSpaces™ — and we stay involved in every part of the job. The fireplace itself is ours from the first conversation to the final flame: design and placement, permitting, delivery, installation, and the care that comes after. When the work runs to a surround, a mantel, tile or millwork, we plan it with the trades doing it — yours, or ones we bring in — so the fire and the wall are drawn as one thing rather than two. One point of contact, and nothing lost in the gap between trades.
It’s exactly why a freestanding fire belongs with us. A stove or a suspended fireplace only pays off if the spot was chosen for the sightlines, the vent was planned to the roof or the wall it has to leave by, and the floor and the ceiling were checked before the fire was ordered — and that is the difference between an appliance and a centrepiece. We serve homeowners and contractors across Greater Vancouver, the North Shore, and the Sea to Sky Corridor — Squamish to Whistler and Pemberton — and we’d love to show you what’s possible for your room.