What has your stove shop said? I question this size stove simply because you don't have an open space to heat. As far as stoves go, bigger ISN'T better! Most of the heat will remain in the living toom and dining area. And if you crank up the stove you will be blasted out of your home. You'll then start opening windows and keeping the fire at a lower level. It's the lower or "cooler" fire that causes problems. You always want a hot small fire as opposed to a cool large fire. Because that's where the creosote starts building up. Personally, I would go with the next size smaller stove.

It probably doesn't matter much, but the core of your existing doors appears to be particle board, not MDF. MDF is very fine-grained, and looks like the cardboard a cereal box is made from. Particle board is made from coarse sawdust. As to the Ikea doors... I haven't examined one up close, but I'm wondering whether you have the machinery to properly resize the parts. Google helped me find a page about disassembly of these doors, and it looks like the frames have doweled tounge-and-groove joints. This means that making the door narrower will require cutting a new tounge on the end of the shortened rails, and boring new dowel holes too. This is not all that easy to do with typical homeowner equipment. I also don't see why you'd want to buy premade doors, completely disassemble them, re-machine all of the parts, reassemble them and then paint over the original finish, and buy new hinges to boot. If you're willing and able to do all of that, why not start from scratch? If I had to make a glass door from one of your existing doors, I'd be inclined to cut the rectangular glass opening all the way through the particleboard, then attach the faux frame strips such that the overhang the particleboard and create a rabbet; the glass would sit directly against the false frame, and the retaining strips behind the glass would conceal the edge of the particleboard. This IS a kludge; the door will not stand up to much abuse, as no particleboard frame is going to have the integrity of a solid wood frame. But if you're not abusive, it would probably last a couple of years. Having said all of this, it seems like you could easily find yourself spending more time on the project than it's worth. I realize you're trying to avoid spending cash, but isn't your time worth something? If this is really a short-term stopgap, might it make sense to just paint the existing doors and then focus on saving the money for properly built doors?

For those folks in similar situations the problem with gas inserts is that most manufacturers only make about 3 sizes of inserts - small medium and large. Since an insert has to fit various sized fireplaces they are generally short in height and don't adequately fill the opening hence the outer surround panels to cover out to the existing surface. The largest inserts rarely exceed 24" tall so in a 42" x 42" opening as shown in the sketch above, the gas unit does not fill the opening,and has way too much black surround. Valor Gas Fireplaces makes 4 Insert specific units, but their 7 zero clearance fireplaces can also be used as Inserts if the fireplace is large enough. If your F.P. opening is about 53" W x 54" H you can fit a 50" Linear inside. This means that Valor has 11 inserts, more than any other manufacturer. A Valor H6 fireplace is 42-1/4" w x 34-1/2" H which would fit if you have more than 42" If anyone needs more information contact me. Here is the Valor website for more information www.valorfireplaces.com

They want to sell you new doors because it will actually cost more to do what you want to have glass retrofitted than it would to order new doors exactly the way you want them. It’s too labor intensive for a small project. It is only economically viable as a DIY project.