warm and fuzzy

It's December 5th and we've just had our first (actual, below freezing) cold snap in Charlotte. On nights like tonight, I want to curl up on the sofa with a good book and an even better glass of wine with a crackling fire as the only background noise in the room--sorry, Sunday Night Football. However, there are several reasons this won't work: the first of which is that our fireplace is non-working and stuffed with fiberglass insulation (something Alex came up with to keep our old house from becoming too "drafty" in the winter). The second reason, of course, is that our only TV is in the living room. And if it's Sunday, it's football at the Wheats. So while I sit here not reading and listening to Al Michaels talk about the Ray Lewis, my cold fingers google "fireplace design," and here's what I see:

Above images from Architectural Digest

Above images from Elle Decor