Why not a fireplace? You can build a small bump out to get the firebox on the exterior, and have a direct vent model. Wood stoves are incredibly messy and take up huge amounts of room. Each model will have its own required clearances to non combustible materials. You have to understand those specs to work around them.

You would need to post your design and the specs to get more help than a suggestion to consider something else that won’t take up so much room. Especially since you (rightly) fear that it will be a space hog.

Oh, I wish. My husband doesn't want a fireplace. And I don't have specs on the stove because I haven't picked one out. My husband wants a Blaze King. They are big and ugly (I think), and I might have to live with that. Are there any efficient, reliable stoves that aren't big and ugly? We looked at Blaze King stoves. The model that was suggested would need (with clearances) about 3' depth, and an additional foot in front for the tile, though that will be flush with the flooring.

Post floor plans and exterior elevations of your proposed home. Is the wood stove for heating purposes or aesthetic purposes or what percentage of each? Have you selected a wood stove yet? Has construction started yet on the house?

@Cindy Helsley - Why does your husband want a wood stove if he doesn't want a fireplace? Don't they essentially serve the same purpose? What are his objections to a fireplace? Why does he prefer a wood stove? Especially if you are concerned with space, furniture placement, and traffic flow, a fireplace makes much more sense than a wood stove.

Consider a Pacific Energy Alderlea to minimize clearance requirements - ours needs only 3" in a corner installation using double wall pipe. Hearthstone stoves give long lasting heat due to the soapstone in them.

Wood stoves benefit from being centrally located in the house, so the heat spreads out evenly.

Locating the stove near the door to your wood supply is also prudent to avoid lugging wood farther than needed.

I posted a floor plan. I don't know why it isn't showing up! I'll do it again. I don't have the entire plan with me right now, but I have a photocopy of the living/dining/kitchen. So, the exterior elevation can't be posted. Sometimes my husband brings the plans home at night, so hopefully he will and I can post that too tonight. The stove is for heating purposes. I would love not to have one, but this is literally the only decision my husband is making! The house is almost dried in. Doors aren't in, and roofing will go on next week. No siding. It is a little over 1,600 sq ft. My husband and a friend, who both used to build houses, are doing all the work themselves. They are doing an impressive job. We have never built our own home, though we extensively remodeled 3 homes, including a complete gut on the last remodel. None had wood stoves. I really dropped the ball on this. I didn't know it would be such an issue. I had originally wanted to build a beautiful surround for the wood stove on the long wall in the living room, but now realize it also would stick out too far for furniture placement. I feel like such a failure!

Our Alderlea T4 fits in a corner installation on a 4' square pad (with one clipped corner). So that is an option for the living room corner on the upper right. Most stoves wouldn't fit in a space that small, though

Is the dining room actually going to have a dining table? If so, putting the stove between the windows is getting pretty tight IMO. The corner would be the better option.

A brother in law included a compact wood burning stove in their kitchen. It's in a corner between a doorway to a hallway and doorway to their living area. They do use it.

Another sister in law put one in their TV room, same compact size. It takes up little space and is no more messy than anyplace where you would stack a few pieces of wood alongside.

That little wood stove in the TV room? Several of us shared soup and grilled sandwiches cooked over gas outside in front of that tiny stove one evening. Battery lanterns adding to its light. Our entire community had been without power for more than 24 hours and I can think of nothing that felt as comforting as that stove. It wouldn't heat a house. It nicely warmed a large room.

I've had a wood fireplace, a wood fireplace insert, and a gas fireplace. My preference is our current gas fireplace. But, partly because the only way to reach either the wood fireplace or the wood insert with wood was to carry it all the way through the house, no outer door to living room area.

Describing something like this

I'd get rid of that kitchen island that's out in the middle of no where and not really functional. Then put dining table north to south and put a small wood stove between the windows. I think whatever you do you will need a smaller wood stove with minimum clearances.

We have a large wood stove(Jotul F500). It's on a raised platform. We have a wood rack right outside our sliding glass door for easy access to wood. We are in a mountain community. We don't use ours for a main heat source but if we were to lose power it would heat our main floor nicely.

I love my woodstove and there is no comparability to a fireplace! If you live where the power goes out frequently for any length of time, you can stay warm and cook on it. You can heat your whole house with it whether you have power or not. I'm always amazed when people say "why not just a fireplace?". Apples and oranges.

Please look at European woodstoves (or European style). They are so much more attractive (to my eye), certified for clean burning, and generally really efficient.

Rais has some curved ones that come in colors other than black...gray, white, etc.

I looked at the Pacific Energy stoves that Isaac posted and really love the Neo models! They also have some soapstone stoves - some of their models are steel and not cast iron, however. I'd be worried about long term durability compared to cast iron:

Our T4 sufficed to heat our 1600 sq ft, two story house with one fire a night when it was 20F outside. The house is 100 years old so even with air sealing and insulation it leaks more than yours probably will.

These are some of my favorite woodstove placement pics for a room with windows and a view. I'd probably place it in front of the windows to the right of the dining room and go with a more vertical stove than a boxy one:

I love your stove vinmarks!

Two things, I guess I really agree with the comment about the island floating out there. I think that has to be changed. AND, I have looked at thousands of photos of charming wood stoves in homes with windows, and then my husband takes me to see an ugly chunk of a thing. I will research all of the stoves mentioned. I just don't think I can live with the ugliness of those Blaze King stoves. The problem is, when my husband gets something absolutely stuck in his thinking, it may be impossible to get something else. Anyway, how can I change that kitchen? No island? A peninsula instead, moving it more into the kitchen area? My husband got it in his craw to get the home dried in ASAP, but then we are going to really take our time with finishing. He has a sawmill (Mobile Dimensions) that leaves circle saw marks. He is planning on making our flooring. That will take time, because it needs to be cut, edges done for flooring, banded, and dried. He is really great, and slow, at finishes, built-ins, etc. So, I went along with his idea to get the home framed, but I hadn't met with any designers yet. This whole thing is making me quite anxious. If I can't resolve it, then the wood stove has to go. I would love ideas on the kitchen though. Just general thoughts. Maybe I'll make another post on that aspect later.

I’d have some concerns about relying on that for your heat and not having a traditional HVAC system. The home was not designed with the bulk of a wood stove in mind, and even a small one needs clearance.

The first thing I’d suggest is to have hubby create a scaled drawing of the dining, family, kitchen area. You create scale furniture pieces, like you’re doing paper dolls. Create a scale 30” circle for a human, for walking through the space. You need him involved, because he’s driving this, and the only way to get through is he has to visualize. Arrange your scale furniture pieces.

Now, every wood stove that you consider, you create a scale cutout of the clearance needed around it on another piece of graph paper. If it’s 48” in all directions, then that’s bigger than a hulking refrigerator. He has to figure out where it fits. And the stove had to have the capacity to heat the whole structure. Yes, there is software that can do this. No, don’t even think of using it. It’s the hands on experience of scale and spatial planning that is important. He will quickly see that either an expensive small euro model is the only solution, or he’ll investigate a fireplace, or he will decide that he needs HVAC after all.

Your kitchen could use improvement. The fridge location in the interior runs traffic right through your work zone. Also, unless you’re buying a built in model like a SubZero, it’s likely that the doors on it won’t open fully.

Get the wood stove thing solved first though. Because it’s another constraint to space planning. Then the kitchen can get worked on.

First off, you're going to end up loving your wood stove - we have a Quadrafire 7100 zero-clearance wood stove in our new home and love it. It's not our primary heat source, which I think makes us enjoy it more.

Could you clarify whether or not you'll also have a central HVAC system to supplement it? Surely at least for A/C in the summer?

There will be an HVAC system. I should have been clear on that! It is just that my husband is set on mostly using a wood stove because everyone does that here. The more I ponder, the more I love the idea of leaving the wood stove out, but that might not fly. The Cook's Kitchen - THANKS! I knew something was wrong with that kitchen, but I am a "can-do" kind of gal, and just figured it could be fixed. I am sure we can figure out something better within the size constraints. And, I love the idea of showing my husband the space problem to scale. I am extremely crafty. I wonder if I made something up 3-D to physically show him. Does anyone ever do that or is that a silly idea? We are picky people, but rushed on this home because my 89 year old mother had a stroke and needed to come live with us. We had been living in a 5th wheel on the property. We moved into the rental we gutted and remodeled in town so we had a place to bring her, and we have rushed this build too much because we felt so anxious about providing a better place for her.

Yes, both heating and AC will be installed. I will be comfortable in my old age! And I am going to immediately look up a Quadrafire 7100!

following

Without the entire floor plan and exterior elevations, I would place it where the 'X' is, not knowing what effect it will have on the chimney, or heating the home, or interfering with furniture and flow.

dbrad - Oh my goodness, I think a zero-clearance stove is exactly what I need. I can get all kinds of dealer info, but I would like some actual user info. If you come back to read this, can you tell me how long it burns and how big the firebox is?

Cindy, I've used this forum a few times...the guys (mostly) there are so full of info (and opinions) about woodstoves. You might want to check it out for more real life experiences/info.

Hearth.com wood stove forum

Olychick, Thanks! I just popped back here from that site! I am fairly certain some kind of zero clearance appliance is exactly what I need, so I will be searching that site for a while. My head hurts already though.

Don't let your husband see it. I think there are a lot of Blaze King fans there! Do you think it's the name that appeals to them?!!

I talked to my hubby. He is fine with going to a zero-clearance fireplace or none at all. I am relieved. I can't thank everyone enough! I never would have come up with this on my own. I still welcome any other thoughts or suggestions.

Vermont Castings stoves tend to not be too big and are definitely not ugly. In fact, they are NICE and very well built.

Make sure if you get a woodstove with a window. With a good stove, you can heat a whole house with just 2 logs.

Big no on a fireplace. A woodstove is much more efficient. Plus, it has a unique kind of warmth; if you haven’t been in a house with wood heat, you have a treat waiting for you.

Fireplaces are not as safe nor regulated for emissions the way woodstoves are,

I have lived with a woodstove as my sole source of heat.

Olychick, hearth.com? What hearth.com? He will never know! He was surprisingly open to going another direction.

Call the Vermont Castings folks and find out where to put the stove and what’s needed.

Check out the European style wood stoves they are really attractive and have different ratings and install than many NA ones. I agree there is no comparison between a wood stove and a FP.You will also get info about the best place to put the wood stove for optimum operation for heating from a good FP store

dbrad, This is exactly what I want. EXACTLY. It may not be the longer burning, yet ugly, Blaze King, but I would rather go without than have an ugly wood stove in the middle of my house! I can't thank you enough.

Have the windows been ordered? If not, increasing the wall size between them would be easy to do.

The Cook's Kitchen, yes, the windows are already installed. Actually, once I remove that island, I think we will be golden. It really opens up the space. I have a question for you since you are a kitchen designer. Do you ever design a kitchen with 36" between the counters and island. If that is acceptable, I could turn the island to run into the U shape. It would be smaller, both width and depth. My mother-in-law's kitchen is very similar, with a very similar traffic pattern. Her clearance between her island and the outer counters cannot be more than 36". It is narrow, but we have big gatherings there with no problems. I won't have many big gatherings at all because we live literally in the middle of nowhere. Her island isn't very big, but we use it all the time. Also, I think it was you who commented on the fridge. The engineer tucked it in that opening. It will be sticking out I think about 4" so the doors will open. I'm curious how the location runs the traffic though the work zone?

36 inches between counters and island is too narrow. The fridge is in a traffic zone due to is location right near the range. Anyone going to get something from the fridge will get in the way of someone cooking at the range. People will also be walking right through the middle of the kitchen. That would drive me nuts if I were cooking in the kitchen. The kitchen needs a lot of work.