Light Our Fire

Like many apartment-dwellers, we’re oh-so-nostalgic for the fireplaces and campfires of our youth. But we’re also the owners of a mild fire phobia—not a three-chimney Wellesley Colonial.

What to do?

We’ve heard of flueless fireplaces—contraptions that require neither wood nor a chimney nor complicated installations—but the only one we’d seen resembled a flat-screen TV. Cool, but not quite conducive to gathering ’round.

On a recent trip to the Design Center, however, we discovered another flueless design we could definitely live with. Australian company EcoSmart has created a flueless, freestanding, and gorgeously chic fireplace that runs on ethanol.

The fireplace comes in multiple designs: Most are a mod-ish square (in white, stainless steel, or light wood) that are sleek enough to match your Eames furniture but traditional enough to be cozy. (They can also serve as de facto room dividers in a loft or studio.) If you’re really missing those campfires, there’s actually a design that resembles a pile of stones—and can be placed pretty much anywhere.

Minimalist design, clean-burning, smokeless fire, and zero wood-schlepping or chimney cleaning? Our fire’s definitely lit.

EcoSmart fireplaces, about $5,000, at Eco Modern Design, 1 Boston Design Center Pl., Boston, 617-261-0300, ecomoderndesign.com.