Customising Your Small Wood Burning Stove

This article will talk you through the process of customising your small wood burning stove. Each and every one of our small wood stoves are hand-finished in our Devon workshop, which means that all of our Hobbit stoves can be fully-customised to meet the individual requirements of each customer! This article will provide you with an overview and a step-by-step guide to customising your small wood burning stove.

Your Hobbit stove can be painted in almost any colour, and you can pick different colours for the top and bottom doors, the body, the airflow wheel or for the stand! We use Calfire’s Stove Bright high temperature paint, and you can customise your small wood burner with any of the options shown on our colour chart. We also offer a great variety of different options for your small wood burning stove, so that you can customise your Hobbit to fit your needs.

Each tiny wood burner is carefully inspected and fettled before it leaves our workshop, and we’re incredibly proud of every Hobbit stove that has been sent out into the world over the past 12 years. Each and every one of our small wood burning stoves is given its own unique serial number so that a record of its life can be kept, and you can complete the last step of its journey by registering your Hobbit stove with us to activate its 5-year warranty.

We want you to be able to choose a wood burner that has the perfect functionality and appearance to suit your own needs and preferences, so you can follow the steps below as a guide to customising your own small wood burning stove! When you’ve decided what stove options you would like, you can select them on the product page for the Hobbit, the Hobbit SE or for the Little Range Cook Stove. These steps are just a suggestion – feel free to go as wild as you like when it comes to customising your small wood burning stove!

A standard Hobbit stove (pictured left), in comparison to a customised Hobbit stove (pictured right).

Step 1 – Choosing The Fittings For Your Small Wood Burning Stove

When it comes to customising your small wood burning stove, you could start by choosing whether you’d like to have stainless steel fittings or brass fittings. The stainless steel fittings come as standard with your small wood stove, but you can pay a bit extra to have these fittings replaced with brass ones.

We think that the stainless steel fittings give your tiny wood burner a more modern look, whereas the brass fittings will give your stove a more rustic or antique feel. If you select the option for brass fittings, then this will replace the handles of the stove door, the pins for the doors’ hinges, the pin for the airflow wheel, and the riddling arm.

For some added sparkle, you can also choose between a brass or chrome airflow wheel, instead of having it in the standard matte black. Alternatively, you can choose to have this part painted, but we’ll cover all of the painting options that are available a bit further on in this article.

Step 2 – Choosing a Stand For Your Small Wood Burning Stove

After customising your small wood burning stove with the type of fittings that you’d like to have, you might want to consider adding our log store stand to your small wood stove. Our stand option will add an additional 158mm of height to your Hobbit or Hobbit SE, and the space beneath your stand can also be used as a log store!

This is a particularly attractive option if you’re looking to install your small wood burner into a shepherd’s hut, a yurt or a tiny home, and it’s great if you have guests that are going to be using your tiny wood burner. Adding our stand option will make it easier to operate and refuel your stove, without you having to bend down closer to the floor. Adding a stand to your small wood stove will also give you a much better view of your fire, and it will improve the efficiency of your space when it comes to storing your kiln-dried logs or briquettes. (We’ve written about a range of eco-friendly fuels that we would recommend).

If you have a small fireplace, then adding a stand will enable you to have a supply of fuel conveniently located right under your stove! This means that you won’t need a basket of logs getting in the way or taking up any extra space in your tiny home or dwelling. If you’ve already received your Hobbit stove and think it could do with a stand, then this option can be easily retrofitted to your existing Hobbit or Hobbit SE.

Our pedestal stand is a great alternative to our traditional log store stand. This option adds more height to your stove, but it also gives your small wood burner a much more contemporary look. You still have the option to store some logs on the platform beneath your stove, and both of our stands come with 4 holes drilled into the base. This enables your stove to be easily bolted to the floor of your campervan, canal boat, or any other moving vehicle. This guide will show you how to bolt your Hobbit stove to the floor.

Our Hobbit stove with the log store stand and brass fittings (pictured left), in comparison to our Hobbit stove with the pedestal stand and brass fittings (pictured right). Please note that we have now had to discontinue the pedestal stand, as it is not compatible with the Eco Design version of our Hobbit stoves.

Step 3 – Choosing The Colour of Your Small Wood Burning Stove

Next, (and probably the most exciting part!) you can begin customising your small wood burning stove with one or more different colours! You can choose from a wide range of colour options, which are shown in our stove paint colour chart. Having your Hobbit stove painted in one or more different colours will add a huge amount of character to your stove, as well as a completely unique and personal touch!

When you go to the product page for the Hobbit or the Hobbit SE, you will be presented with a number of drop-down menus which make it easy to pick the colours of your small wood burning stove. Each part is broken down into sections – you can choose to have your small wood stove painted all over in one single colour, or you can choose to have the stove’s top door, bottom door, body or airflow wheel to be painted in the same colour, or in completely different colours! If you’d like to have another part of the stove painted, then please feel free to contact us.

Before you decide on the colours that you would like your stove to be painted, it’s worth considering how your small wood burning stove is going to be used. However beautiful it may be, if you choose to have your stove painted in a light colour, such as Almond, then it’s worth considering how this will age over time.

Any soot marks are going to show up a lot more against lighter colours, so your small wood stove will need touching up with a fresh coat of paint from time-to-time if you want to keep it looking nice and new. It’s also worth bearing in mind whether or not your tiny wood burner is going to be used by tenants or holiday guests, as they might not take the same level of care when it comes to keeping your small wood burning stove nice and clean.

This might be quite a crazy colour combination, but it just goes to show that the possibilities are truly endless! Please feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss your bespoke design!

If you’ve already purchased one of our small wood burning stoves in a matte black colour way, or if your painted stove needs a touch-up, then we stock a wide range of stove paint so that you can give your small wood stove a fresh new look. We can also order a specific colour for you if we don’t currently have the one that you’d like in stock.

Make sure you check out our other article that we’ve written on how to colour your small wood burning stove, as this will talk you through each and every step that you’ll need to take when it comes to painting and curing your small stove! Here, you’ll also find a range of useful videos that will guide you through each step.

Step 4 – Choosing Additional Options For Your Small Wood Burning Stove

You can also choose from a wide range of additional options when it comes to customising your small wood burning stove. You can view each option in our stove extras section, or you can carry on reading this article to find out more! You can easily apply a range of optional extras to your small wood burning stove when you go to the product page for the Hobbit stove, Hobbit SE, or the Little Range Cook Stove.

Customising your small stove with these options will allow you to access the full potential of your tiny wood burner! However, the stove extras that you might be interested in will undoubtedly vary depending on where you’re looking to install your small wood stove, and how you intend to use it.

Below, we’ve provided a brief summary of each option and why it might be useful to you…

Adding a Boiler Option to Your Small Wood Burning Stove

Customising your small wood burning stove with our boiler option is a great move if you’d like to use the warmth of your small wood burner to power a hot water supply. This could be used to heat your taps, a radiator, or a non-pressurised shower system! This is a fantastic option if you live off-grid in your tiny home, or if you live in a campervan or a canal boat! It’s also a great idea if you have a small wood burning stove installed in a shed, cabin, or a summer house at the bottom of your garden, as you will no longer need to walk back up to the house for some hot water, and you can even enjoy an outdoor shower! Having a stove and a hot water supply in this type of small space will enable you to camp outside with some additional luxuries!

We’ve written an article which explains how you can connect your small wood burning stove to a hot water system, and we’ve also included some videos and diagrams to make it easier to setup. You can find more useful documents in our help section, and if you get stuck then feel free to get in touch.

You can customise your small wood burning stove by adding the boiler option to the back of your tiny wood burner, or you choose to add it to the left or right hand-side of your Hobbit stove or Hobbit SE. Due to the Little Range being connected to an oven, you can only add the boiler at the back of this small wood cook stove, or on the right hand-side.

It’s worth noting that the boiler will use 1kW of heat from your stove, which means that a Hobbit that’s equipped with our boiler option will release 3kW of heat into your room. The boiler will be fitted inside the firebox of your stove.

Adding a Stainless Steel Cooktop to Your Small Log Burner

You might also be interested in customising your small wood burning stove with a stainless steel cooktop option! This is a great idea if you’re looking to harness the full cooking potential of your small wood stove. The Hobbit stove kicks out a surprising amount of heat, so it makes sense to utilise some of this warmth to cook some delicious food right on the top of your small wood cook stove!

Our cooktop option consists of a 4mm thick stainless steel insert, which is fitted into the top of your small stove. Our stainless steel cooktop option is intelligently designed, so that the flue gases from your fire are channelled to heat one specific corner of your stove’s cooktop. This provides a range of cooking temperatures on your stovetop depending on the placement of your pan. It’s also removable and easy to clean, and it helps to prevent any stains or scratches to the paintwork of your stove, which could be caused by any spillages, or by the abrasion from your pans.

If you decide to purchase the Little Range Cook Stove, then this wood burner comes with a good-sized oven and a large stainless steel cooktop, which are included as standard. You can also choose to have no splashback option (shown below), or you can customise your Range with a 3/4 size enamelled splashback option or a fully-sized enamelled splashback, which comes with cast iron brackets and a rail to accommodate all of your cooking utensils!

Adding a stainless steel cooktop option to your Hobbit stove or purchasing a Little Range is also a clever way of converting a shepherd’s hut, a cabin or any other form of Airbnb into a self-catering space! This will help to attract new guests to your holiday let, and it’s particularly useful if your Airbnb is in a more remote location, which might not benefit from being situated close to local pubs or restaurants.

If you need some inspiration for what you can cook on your tiny wood burner, then we’ve also made a cookbook which will show you just how many different things you can make! You can also find a number of other recipes below:

• Leek and potato soup 
• Eggy crumpet and bacon breakfast
• Cacciuccio Italian fish stew
• Steak and Devon ale pie
• Lamb stew

You could even make some banana mini cup cakes in your Little Range, or even some olive and sun-dried tomato bread! You can check out the cooking section of our blog for the latest recipes.

Adding a Direct Air Intake to Your Small Wood Stove

Customising your small wood burning stove with our Direct Air Intake System will enable you to have primary air from outside directly channelled into the firebox of your small wood stove. This option is particularly useful if your small wood burning stove is going to be installed in a passive house or another airtight structure, such as a caravan, a shepherd’s hut or a garden room. This option will improve the draw of your tiny wood burner, and it will also enable your fuel to burn more efficiently – providing you with a higher room temperature.

You can independently control the primary and secondary air sources at the front of your stove, but you can still adjust the the burn-rate of your fire by adjusting the bottom door and the airflow wheel. This means that you will have even greater control over the burn-rate of your fire!

You can add this option to your Hobbit stove or Little Range Cook Stove by ticking it as one of your stove options on the relevant product page. You also have the ability to purchase our direct air installation kit, which includes everything you need to fit this system to your small wood burning stove!

Adding a Gallery Rail to Your Small Wood Burner

Customising your small wood burning stove with a brass gallery rail or a stainless steel gallery rail is another popular option. This is particularly useful if your small wood stove is going to be installed into a canal boat, a yacht, or a campervan, as it enables you to safely retain a kettle or a cook pot on the top of your stove whilst you’re in transit. It also adds a more antique and traditional look to your tiny wood burner! We offer a wide range of Alessi stovetop kettles to go with your small stove, and we’ve also designed our own high quality cast iron enamel cookware set!

It’s worth noting that if your flue is going to exit from the top of your stove, then customising your small wood burning stove with a gallery rail should be for more aesthetic purposes. This is because you’ll only really have enough space for a mug or a very small kettle or pan, and the rear section of the gallery rail will also need to be removed. Therefore, if you decide to have a gallery rail with your small wood burning stove, then you will ideally need to have your flue exiting from the rear in order to fully utilise this small stove option.

Our stainless steel gallery rail (pictured left) in comparison to our brass gallery rail (pictured right).

Other Options For Your Tiny Wood Burner

This article covers most of the options that you can pick when you’re customising your small wood burning stove, but make sure you also check out our small stove heat shield option! You can read more about this option here, and this option is a fantastic solution if you’re looking to install your tiny wood burner into a particularly small space!

You might want to also consider customising your small wood burning stove with a set of coal bars, so that you can safely retain more fuel in your firebox with the reduced risk of any logs or coal falling out of your stove when you go to refuel it. Lastly, it’s also worth taking a look through our range of exciting stove accessories that will go brilliantly with your small wood burning stove!

You can check out our case studies to see how other people have customised their tiny wood burner, and you can also browse our gallery page or take a look through some of our brilliant reviews if you’d like to see our small wood burners in their new homes.