Open-plan living looks effortless on paper. Kitchen, dining and living room flowing into one generous, light-filled space, the kind of layout that sells new builds and drives renovation projects across Ireland. But once you are actually living in one, a very common problem emerges: how do you make a large, undivided room feel like more than one coherent space? And more to the point, where does the fireplace go? A traditional single-aspect fire works perfectly in a contained room with a clear focal point, but in an open-plan layout, it can leave half the space feeling unmoored and visually incomplete. The double-sided electric fire solves this elegantly, and at Flamestyle by The Soot Doctor, it is one of the most frequently discussed options with clients who are designing or renovating open-plan homes. Read on to find out how these fires work, what they look like in practice, and how to plan one properly.
A double-sided electric fire, also called a see-through or tunnel fire, is exactly what it sounds like: a fireplace with a flame display visible from two sides. Rather than presenting a flame only to a single room, the fire sits within a partition wall or dividing element and shows the flame effect through both faces simultaneously.
In an open-plan context, this is genuinely transformative. A double-sided fire positioned between a living area and a dining space, for example, creates a shared focal point that anchors both zones while maintaining the visual flow between them. It defines the room without closing it off. From either side, the flame is fully visible and because it is electric, the flame presentation can be precisely tuned, often independently on each face, without the constraints of a real flue or gas connection.
The key distinction from a standard electric fire is the glass on both sides of the unit. Both faces are finished to a display standard, and the flame effect is designed to be viewed from either direction. Unlike a back-to-back arrangement of two separate fires, a true double-sided unit shares a single flame bed viewed through both panes simultaneously, giving you a genuinely continuous, immersive visual experience from both rooms at once.
The challenge with open-plan living is one of scale and definition. When walls are removed and spaces merge, the design work of making each zone feel intentional falls to furniture arrangement, material choices, lighting, and focal points. Without them, a large open space can feel like it has no personality, no sense of arrival, no place for the eye to settle.
A fireplace is the most powerful focal point available in residential design. It draws the eye immediately and commands the room around it. In a single-aspect configuration, it does this for one zone. In a double-sided configuration, it does it for two simultaneously, functioning as the shared heart of the open plan rather than a feature that belongs exclusively to one half of it.
Beyond the purely visual, a double-sided fire also creates a psychological division. Even without a wall, even without any physical barrier, the presence of a flame feature between two zones gives each area its own sense of belonging. The living side “belongs” to the fire from one direction; the dining side belongs to it from the other. This is the kind of layered spatial intelligence that great interior design is built on, and it is increasingly what we see clients at Flamestyle pursuing when they come to us with open-plan renovation briefs.
In theory, a double-sided fire can be gas or electric. In practice, for the vast majority of new build and modern renovation projects in Ireland, electric is the right choice, and for several very clear reasons.
Gas fires require a flue, and a flue through a partition in an open-plan space creates a structural complication that most builds, particularly new builds, which are often designed without traditional chimney infrastructure, simply cannot accommodate easily. The flue needs to run somewhere, and in an open-plan layout with complex ceiling geometries and multi-room adjacencies, that routing is rarely straightforward or clean.
Electric fires require none of this. They need a standard 13-amp socket or, for a cleaner installation, a hardwired fused spur behind the wall and nothing else. No flue, no gas line, no ventilation requirement. The wall they sit in can be a standard timber stud partition, a plasterboard divider or even a bespoke joinery element. This flexibility is enormously valuable when designing around open-plan spaces where the exact position of the fire needs to respond to the room’s proportions and furniture layout rather than being dictated by flue routing.
There is also the question of flame quality. The leading electric fire brands available at Flamestyle, Dimplex, Faber, Evonic, DRU and others, have developed flame technologies that are genuinely stunning to look at, with depth, movement and warmth that hold up to extended, close-up viewing from multiple directions. This matters enormously in a double-sided installation where the fire is being viewed from two different angles simultaneously. A gas fire’s real flame is beautiful but does not offer the same level of controllable visual customisation. An electric fire can be adjusted for flame height, speed, colour temperature and intensity at the touch of a button or increasingly, via an app.
For new builds in particular, electric is also the future-friendly choice. With Ireland’s move away from gas connections in new residential construction gathering pace, specifying an electric fire future-proofs the installation in a way that a gas appliance simply does not.
Getting a double-sided electric fire installation right comes down to a handful of critical decisions that need to be made before a single piece of timber is cut. This is exactly the kind of conversation our team has with clients at the Flamestyle showroom in Bray, and getting these decisions right at the outset is the difference between a seamless, stunning result and an expensive rethink.
Position and partition design. The fire sits within a wall or dividing element. That element needs to be planned for depth, structural integrity and finish quality. A standard 100mm stud partition is unlikely to accommodate most double-sided electric fire units; the unit itself typically needs at least 150mm to 200mm of depth, and in some cases more, depending on the model. Your builder or carpenter needs the precise technical drawing of the fire before the partition is framed.
Height. Most double-sided electric fires look best at a height that places the flame at or just below eye level when seated. This is the position that creates the most immersive viewing experience from both sides. In practice, for a fire being viewed from sofas on one side and dining chairs on the other, the ideal height may differ slightly between zones, this is a genuine design consideration worth thinking through.
Material and finish. Because there is no heat risk on the surrounding structure from an electric fire, the possibilities for the surround and partition material are wide open. Stone cladding, Venetian plaster, timber joinery, and marble, all are entirely suitable. Many of the most striking double-sided installations we have seen use contrasting finishes on each face of the partition, treating each zone’s view of the fire as distinct visual statement. This is a detail that elevates the result from functional to genuinely beautiful.
Cable management. As with any built-in electric fire installation, cable management inside the partition is important. Plan a service channel during the build phase so that the power supply is clean and the wall face is uninterrupted. If you want to integrate lighting or other features into the partition, which many clients do, plan those runs at the same time.
Flamestyle carries an extensive range of electric fires suited to double-sided and open-plan applications, and the showroom in Bray is one of the best places in Ireland to see the flame technologies from different brands side by side.
For statement see-through and tunnel installations, Faber is consistently one of the most-requested brands. Their built-in tunnel fires offer exceptional flame depth and a sophisticated finish on both faces, with precise control options and flame presentations that look genuinely luxurious from every angle. The e-MatriX range, available at Flamestyle, is a particularly strong choice for design-led projects where the fire is as much a sculptural element as a functional one.
Dimplex’s Ignite range, particularly the Ignite Ultra and Ignite Bold, are extremely popular for media wall and open-plan applications. While not all Dimplex models are available in a factory double-sided configuration, certain builds use the Ignite series set into a deep partition in a way that creates an effective double-aspect display, something our team can advise on in detail.
Evonic fires are another strong option for refined open-plan installations, with flame effects that reward close-up viewing and a build quality that suits higher-specification projects. If you are at the early stages of planning and have not yet settled on a brand or model, the most useful thing you can do is visit the showroom. Photographs of electric fires are genuinely inadequate; the flame technologies from different brands look meaningfully different in person, and seeing them in a real space gives you a much more reliable sense of what each will deliver in your home.
Once the model is chosen and the partition is designed around its specifications, a double-sided electric fire installation follows a logical sequence. The partition is framed to the correct depth and dimensions; the fire’s housing is built in during the frame stage; plasterboard, finishing material and surround elements are applied; the fire unit is fitted; and the electrical connection is made.
The Soot Doctor handles the technical installation side, ensuring the unit is correctly fitted, sealed and connected. Because there is no flue or gas work involved, the installation process is considerably cleaner and faster than a traditional fireplace project. Most double-sided electric fire installations in a stud partition can be completed in a day’s fitting work once the building work is done, though the overall project timeline depends on the surrounding construction.
If you are working with a builder or architect on a new build or renovation, it is worth introducing The Soot Doctor and Flamestyle into the conversation at the design stage. The specific dimensional requirements of any fire need to be incorporated into the partition design from the outset, not retrofitted around an existing structure.
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A double-sided electric fire, done well, is one of the most impactful design decisions you can make in an open-plan home. It solves the zoning problem elegantly, creates a focal point that works from every angle, and does it without any of the structural complications that come with combustion alternatives.
The Flamestyle showroom in Bray is the starting point. Come and see what the flame technologies look like in person, talk through your room dimensions and layout with our team, and let The Soot Doctor handle the technical installation from there. Call us on 01 902 0758 or visit Flamestyle.ie to explore the range.
DISCLAIMER: All technical specifications including partition depth requirements and clearance distances are for general guidance only. Always confirm exact dimensional requirements with the manufacturer’s technical documentation and arrange a professional site survey before commencing any construction work.
