If Santa is coming to your house this Christmas, you might want to make sure he has the traditional mode of entry — a fireplace. To make sure Kris Kringle is impressed enough to leave some real goodies, you will want to make sure the fireplace is safe, clean and, of course, stylish.

To go beyond the traditional hearth, Charles and Hudson profiled these fireplaces. This floating fireplace from Focus-Creation has a Space Age elegance and would be a great option for when you don’t want to take up wall space to install a fireplace.

If you really can’t decide what angle you want to sit at to face the fire, the TURN fireplace by Schweiger & Viererbl might be your answer! It rotates 360 degrees and has a neat place to store kindling.

Via Freshome, we discovered the work of artist Elena Colombo. Her firescapes are awe-inspiring and truly imaginative. We especially like these riffs on classic fireplaces.

Enjoy the beauty and warmth of the winter months, and don’t be afraid to expand your design horizons!

This week’s Link Love post brings us some tips on stylish, fire-resistant siding; photos of funky treehouses (expanding our horizons with regard to style around the “house”); a minimalist kitchen with a unique dishwasher; and a solar cell phone charger.

Shou-sugi-ban
Pursuing Wabi
Via Remodelista, we stumbled across an interesting exterior finishing option coupled with a little lesson in Japanese aesthetic philosophy. Shou-sugi-ban, or burnt sugi boards, are charred, oiled and used as siding that’s both stylish and practical: The burning process helps protect against future fire damage (basically, it’s a lot harder for burnt wood to catch fire again) and helps prevent rot.

Escape to the Woods: Five Fantastic Treehouses
Apartment Therapy
Stepping outside its apartment-minded comfort zone, Apartment Therapy shares these photos of some rather outstanding treehouses. We need not say more than, “Go take a look.”

Simple Tech = Common Sense Kitchen Design
Home Design Find
A sleek, simple kitchen counter-top and sink combo is great. But add a couldn’t-be-simpler dishwasher and you have perhaps the perfect minimalist kitchen. As the post says, “[S]imple tech is quietly bringing back simplicity and sustainability as a worthwhile goal for industrial design. Here’s a good example; a low tech kitchen appliance that would go well beyond a simple energy star rating for efficiency.”

Charge your cell phone with solar power on the go
The Hardware Aisle from This Old House
You’ve maybe seen the extended-power batteries you can slide onto a cell phone for a couple of extra hours of juice. This is like that — but way cooler. You basically get a limitless amount of juice because you’re carrying a pocket-sized solar-power generator. Free yourself from the grid!