Home Decorating: Owning a Chimenea

Chimeneas are fun. They are a nice accent to place in your yard. Not to mention, the enjoyment of the scent of fragrant wood that you can burn in them.

I bought my first chimenea two years ago. I got a small one, as it was on sale for half off the original price. It was so affordable, that I ended up buying three more for Christmas presents.

The first one I purchased is made out of clay. They are also manufactured out of copper, cast iron, and cast aluminum, but these are a lot more expensive than one made out of clay. The first small one I purchased, is easy to pick up and move to different parts of my yard, or to just keep it on my front porch.

I was unaware of what to put in the bottom of it to lay the wood on, so I chose a couple of bricks. This worked out just fine, as I figured I needed something to elevate the wood, so it wouldn't be touching the clay on the bottom to heat the clay up even more.

I left this smaller one on my front porch, and I got another one for the back yard. It was placed on the patio. We had purchased a two seat swing, and the chimenea was a nice compliment beside the swing. I had also put two bricks in the bottom of it. This chimenea was in two pieces, unlike the first one. It had the base, and a tall piece that fit on top of that. It resembled a stove pipe.

I made one mistake that I won't repeat. I started to burn leaves, and small pieces of paper from junk mail in it. These two items caused the temperature of the fire to get too hot, and it ended up blowing the top stove pipe piece off onto the ground, and it broke into several pieces. The bottom base part was not damaged, and we can still use it.

We also discovered another problem that we had not thought of before hand. We made the mistake of putting the chimenea too close to the swing, and cinders that flew out of the top of it, landed on the awning of the swing, and burned small holes in the material.

I ended up buying a third chimenea for the back yard. The store where I had purchased my first chimenea at, was having another half off sale, this time they were even bigger chimeneas. I almost didn't get it in the back seat of my car, but it fit. We put it in the same place where the second one had been. This time we weren't going to burn anything in it except wood. The second and third chimeneas that we own have a cast iron base with legs, that the chimenea sits on. Unlike the first small on that I bought. We are also careful about paying attention to how hard the wind is blowing, before we start up a fire.

An employee who was helping me with the purchase of my third chimenea, suggested that I put gravel in the the bottom of it, and then place the wood on top of the gravel. I had told her about using the bricks in the bottom, and she said that was fine. Bricks do work, but they can become over heated, and break. Especially, if you burn leaves, and paper in it!

I have burned a lot of different types of fragrant wood in my chimeneas, I have bought pine, and cedar, We also discovered another source of cedar, instead of buying it. We had replaced an old cedar privacy fence, and we burned the old fence in it. It still smelled good, even after a lot of years of being exposed to the elements. We didn't want to throw out the old fence planks, so this worked out perfect.

The packaged wood you can purchase isn't cheap. One other alternative to getting some wood to burn, would be to acquire a tree that's going to be cut down. We ended up getting a couple of dead trees this way. Someone we know was going to cut them down, and we took them, and this helped to defray the cost of the wood. They were Austrian pine trees, and this wood smelled good while it was burning. It took a little more effort to get this wood to ignite, and also this type of pine burned at a slower pace.

Since I have my chimeneas standing on cement, I don't have to worry about the heat involved, if they were sitting on a wooden deck. It is recommended that some brick, or flagstone rock be placed on a a wooden deck, and then place your chimenea on top of this. This creates a platform, so the heat will be diffused from the direct contact of the wood.

I originally bought a lot of fire starter sticks. I was lucky enough one day to get a package of them cheap at an estate sale. Some one who had lived there, had originally intended to use them in their fireplace, as they were on the mantle. I continued to buy more, and more fire starter sticks. One day, I came across a suggestion that I had read, that mentioned using candle pieces to start a fire with. It was so simple, I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before. The tip I read said to use small pieces of wax from broken candles, and also use pieces of wax that are left over from candles that had been burned. Then, take a small piece of waxed paper, and roll the candle wax up inside of it, twisting the ends of the waxed paper in different directions. You now have an excellent fire starter.

I found a lot of candles for sale at garage sales, and I bought plenty of them to get started with. I got a lot of tapers that easily broke into smaller pieces, and they worked perfectly. The waxed paper also ignited faster that the store bought fire starter sticks. Some of the fire starter sticks that I had, were almost impossible to bread into small pieces, so using the candle wax was definitively easier to work with, and more cost effective.

I have enjoyed all of my chimeneas, and I highly recommend them. It's a nice gathering place on my patio, or front porch. I hope to own them for many years to come.