We’ve now lived in this house for six months, and somehow we never properly introduced you to Bart. That’s rude of us — meet Bart, our kitchen’s conspicuous woodstove insert.
Bart, nicknamed Black Bart, dominates the kitchen. The previous owners used him often and warned us that he tended to make the house smoky and left a fine layer of black dust on surrounding surfaces. From the start we planned to replace him someday, especially once we convert the fireplace into a double-sided feature that can be enjoyed from both the kitchen and the living room.
But our daughter Clara accelerated the timeline. She is completely fascinated by Bart — far more than is safe. A three-decade-old wood burning stove gets extremely hot, and the risk to Clara outweighed any charm he might bring. Although we moved in during the middle of winter, we never used the stove. Yet Clara continued to be inexplicably drawn to the sharp metal edges, despite our repeated redirections with toys, the dog, and even ridiculous dance moves.
We know plenty of families who happily keep wood stoves even with little ones, but Bart simply wasn’t a fit for our family. After an incident in which Clara managed to open the stove door and got soot on her hand before we could intervene, my wife Sherry and I decided we were done tolerating this dirty, sharp metal monster that we never used.
We didn’t act impulsively. We considered child-proof locks, foam padding on the edges, and even baby gates. In the end, building elaborate barriers around an appliance we didn’t plan to use — and intended to replace — felt ridiculous. So we took inspiration from a fireplace makeover we admired and decided to remove Bart. Don’t worry: we didn’t trash him. He’s being retired from the fireplace, and we’ll figure out whether to sell or donate him.
I wasn’t sure how to begin the removal, and online searches weren’t very helpful. During Clara’s nap, I started pulling at the visible pieces. The metal flashing around the sides came off much more easily than I expected, which surprised me — Clara almost certainly could have figured that out on her own.
Under the flashing I found that the stove had only a little glue holding three pieces together, which made the unit appear more flush than it really was.
The only unsettling moment came when I uncovered a cluster of wires. For a second I feared electrical work was required, but those wires were simply connected to a fan on the back of the stove. I left the wiring attached and removed the whole unit intact.
Once the sides were cleared away, the stove appeared to be bolted only at the top to a vent that led into the chimney. That bolt was indeed the last connection, but it was stubborn. One of the five bolts was especially rounded and hard to grip, and the confined space made the job awkward. Sherry tried to help despite her shorter reach, and together — after getting a bit sooty and scraping a few knuckles — we loosened the bolts and freed Bart from the vent.
Removing Bart was heavy work; it wasn’t a dramatic flourish so much as a sweaty, groaning effort. We managed to shimmy the stove out of the fireplace, onto a piece of scrap cardboard, and slide it away from the hearth. The fireplace went from a bulky, closed-in look to a cleared firebox ready for a makeover.
Admittedly, the immediate before-and-after wasn’t glamorous. The inside of the firebox looked stained and messy even after I scrubbed it with warm water and mild soap. Sherry insisted on being the one who yanked the stove out herself, so I handled the dirty cleanup while she documented the moment with photos — and yes, I made a face for a couple reasons: the soot cleanup was unpleasant, and I realized a photo of me in my old gym shorts was now internet material.
For now Bart sits in our dining room, where Clara seldom goes, while we decide whether to sell him or donate him to a local restore. In the meantime we’re planning a few immediate updates to the fireplace: painting the firebox a dark charcoal to even out the stained brick, followed by painting the brick and mantel, likely in a bright glossy white. We plan to add color to the kitchen walls, and a white fireplace should balance that nicely. We’ll document those painting steps as we go.
Longer-term ideas include tiling, building a larger mantel, or framing the fireplace up to the ceiling to add height. We’ve also discussed converting it into a double-sided fireplace at some point, but those plans are still up in the air. One small but tedious detail: Sherry removed a stubborn circular blob of glue from the brick near the firebox using an X-Acto knife, since the adhesive didn’t come off as easily as the flashing did.
Have you ever removed a wood stove or fireplace insert? Was online guidance helpful, or did you wing it like we did? Does your child have the same obsession with a wood stove as Clara does? We’ll keep you posted as the fireplace transformation continues.
Psst — we’re also sharing a practical and affordable kid art station today on BabyCenter.