If you want outdoor décor that’s both functional, fashionable, and practical, you can’t get any better than a fire pit. Fire pits can look classic, elegant, modern, or rustic—depending on the design and the supporting elements—no matter where you put them. They’re also cost-effective, easy to install, simple to maintain, and—best of all—so much safer than open bonfires.
Investing in one can add that extra warmth and light (no pun intended) that you didn’t know your backyard needed without risking any major fire hazards.
For first-time fire pit owners, here are some great ideas to utilize that investment.
Visible Inside and Outside
For safety reasons, you obviously don’t want your fire pit to be too close to your house or your garden. However, you don’t want to isolate it to too much. Even though fire pits can stand alone, they still make for great focal points that can really tie a backyard together. Ergo, you want to make sure they’re close enough and visible enough to be counted into your backyard aesthetic.
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To milk the fire pit for all it’s worth, choose an area in your backyard that is visible from inside the house as well. For instance; does your living room have picture windows or floor-to-ceiling windows? Work with the area that’s in view. Does your patio extend into an outdoor kitchen? Keep the fire pit within walking distance of the entertainment area. This way, your fire pit functions as both a centerpiece for your landscape and an aesthetically tasteful décor to admire from within the comforts of your home.
Brown Stone Well
Instead of opting for the more modern-looking lattice and cross-weave fire pits, why not transform your background into a rich, modern-day forge?
Construct a medium-sized well with brown stone or red brick (for an effortlessly expensive look), and then sink a fire pit into the top. If done correctly, only the fire can be seen over the edges of the well. Box it in with half-walls made of the same material to finish the look.
A few things to keep in mind when constructing this: make sure the half-walls are low enough for people to sit on. For the fire pit itself, you’ll need a basin-type in order to sink it into the well. We recommend either stainless steel or cast iron. You’ll also need to measure the well to fit the pit, otherwise it could slip straight through to the bottom.
Embedded in Stone
Instead of keeping your fire pit above ground, why not sink it into your stone patio so that it looks embedded? Not only does this minimize the risk of embers blowing (if you’re using wood or tinder as your fuel source), it also comes off as rustic yet appealingly avant-garde. Use a matched seating set—like white wooden chairs or flat stone benches—to complete the picture.
Crazy Shapes
Instead of choosing the traditional circular fire “pit,” why not choose wilder, more contemporary designs? Some fire pits are square, which is fairly common now, too, and a few not-so-common ones are rectangular.
Break the mold and help your fire pit stand out even further by using unique, one-of-a-kind shapes. For instance, a hexagonal lattice fire pit with a lid, or a triangular teepee-shaped pit made of baked stone. There are even fire pits made to look like misshapen boulders. The weirder and less symmetrical the design, the better.
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Sunken Seating
Sunken living rooms were a huge hit in the 60’s and 70’s, and truth be told they have yet to lose their appeal. Sunken seating or terraced seats are great for wide open floor plans. The leveling of each section physically separates that section from the rest of the room without the need for walls or half-walls, doors, columns, or archways. Sunken seating combines contemporary and traditional design elements with eastern and western cultural concepts to create a stunning, visual masterpiece.
Take this charm to the outdoors by using a sunken fire pit as the centerpiece of a corresponding sunken seating set. This might be a little difficult to pull off if you don’t have much space to start with. However, if you do have the square footage to spare, the leveling and uniqueness of the fire pit’s placement makes this ultimately worth it.
