Soul & Bliss

Soul & Bliss

Niels Boley is managing director of Boley Exclusive Fireplaces. For 45 years, the family-owned company has been realizing heartwarming design, whether traditional wood-burning fireplaces or comfortable gas fireplaces. Always listening to the individual desire. Founded in 1970, the company stands for class, craftsmanship and creative design. By listening carefully to the customer’s wishes, but certainly also by thinking with them when choosing your fireplace, Boley allows the fireplace to become one with the interior.

Meanwhile, Niels Boley has been working in the company started by his father for nearly a quarter of a century. Of course, over all these years, he has seen the various trends in this industry change. “When I started, it was mostly the fancy, shiny fireplaces with lots of glass, brass and copper. Then romantic style fireplaces with limestone and marble surrounds were a hot item. In the 1990s, the minimalist style emerged. Sleek fireplace holes in the wall and little to no fuss. What you mostly see now is a combination of styles. Not only in our industry, but also fashion and restaurants you see the fusion style emerging. People are no longer being pushed in one direction, but are looking for a good combination of styles and materials. For example, classic materials like copper are on the rise. Just look at Tom Dixon’s copper lamps. But bronze, brass and gold are also re-emerging in new forms and applications.”

Design Style

“Which style fits Boley best? Everything fits us. From lavish chic to sleek industrial and everything in between. Although most people will know us for our more modern work where we work a lot with steel accents and large and wide fireplace areas. Because everything is custom, we can handle anything. The fact that everything is custom makes this work so fun and challenging. In designing and creating new elements lies our passion. We therefore do not see our fireplaces as commodities, we really put our heart and soul into them. By listening carefully and watching fashion and interiors you sense what’s going on and what’s going to play. Hence, fortunately, Boley is always a trendsetter rather than a follower.”

Beating heart

“In addition, we also count as a sparring partner of interior designer, because of course the fireplace also has to match the whole and in many cases is an important object in the room. My father always said that the fireplace is the beating heart from which the interior is created. A fireplace can really serve as the center of a home, the residents’ meeting place. By using a fireplace as a room divider between the living and dining rooms, for example, a fireplace also gives direction and shape to a home. This is why we are often called in at an early stage. Of course, also because of the technical aspects such as connections and drainage involved in installing the fireplace.”

Connecting and heating

A fireplace, indoors or outdoors, provides a unifying and warming factor. Not just for functional warmth, we often have central heating for that too, but also the emotional warmth of fire. A kind of primal feeling that everyone knows. Sitting together around a campfire of the distant past. Though these days the fire burns and flares in a more beautifully designed whole.”

View Boley’s projects

Back to blog