Make A Cozy Fire Pit Area, step by step

We have been enjoying this fire pit hangout spot for months now, but it has not been on the journal… until today. This is in short a lesson in how a fence can make a LARGE difference in defining an area, which can lead to adding some plain outdoor furnishings (in this case, it was four adirondak chairs and a fire pit – which hit the ground and instantly created an entirely new “outdoor room” for our whole family to enjoy).

We hang out here and make “fancy” s’mores at least once a week (and sometimes a lot more than that ), so it has been a quite welcome addition. Especially during a time when everyone is spending A LOT of time at home, so something novel and new like this bonus hangout zone feels extra special We even made s’mores for dessert on Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, so it is swiftly becoming quite the family tradition.

Here it is even before we got the fence painted. I am telling you, the chairs and the fit pit hit the ground, and we were immediately SO EXCITED to start using them right away.

We also now consider ourselves to be s’more aficionados, so we can tell you all sorts of lively mashups we have tried, like cookies instead of graham crackers, peanut butter cups on top of the Hershey’s chocolate bars – and perhaps our go-to alteration: Andes mints instead of chocolate (I know that sounds weird, but trust me on this).

Here is the setup at night with the fence painted. You know John has our string lights on a smart outdoor plug so they automatically come on at dusk, which draws us outside like moths to a flame.

And here is the new view from our bedroom during the day, which is about 780% better than what it used to be (we used to simply look out onto the street). From the quite beginning, we envisioned creating this private little patio off of our bedroom for enjoying some adult hangout time after the kids went to bed, which certainly happens, but with the addition of the fire pit, we also all get to enjoy this area together – which is even better.

Remember how I said the view got about 780% better? Well, this is what that area looked like without the fence. Our house is on a corner, and was mostly simply a field of dreams pine needles bordered by the street on two sides. We consistently envisioned fencing in this area thanks to our neighbor up the street who has a similar situation and their fence made allll the difference.

Here we are now, with the fence brought in and painted (the color is Halcyon Green by Sherwin Williams, which changes colors all day long – hence appearing greener or lighter in some of these photos, depending on the cloud cover, time of day, etc).

The hue below is likely what it looks like most frequently (it seems bluer than usual in the photo above, likely because the sun was behind a bunch of clouds). We were aiming for a pleasant calming color that layers into the greenery outside without feeling too loud and crazy or too boring, and we are truly glad with it. Note: our friend’s kitchen cabinets are this same color and they look remarkable! You can see them here.

As for the details on the chairs and the fire pit, this is the exact fire pit that we purchased. We truly hoped a substantial solid-looking one, and finding a pit that is a whopping 30″ wide with a pleasant clean concrete-looking bowl was not straightforward – especially at this price point. We have used it a ton and so far we are truly glad with it.

You can see in that photo above that the fire pit is sitting on a large square concrete paver (it is easiest to spot the gray corner of it to the right of the base in the photo above). Here is a closer shot below:

The fire pit instructions make it clear that it should not sit directly on a wood deck, and recommend setting it on a concrete base, so we slid a big concrete paver under ours. The white part of the bowl does not truly heat up at all (the metal one that in fact holds the flaming logs up top does for sure though!) but we are a fan of following directions. So we hoped to point that out for anyone else who gets one. You do not simply want to set it down on pine needles or a pile of leaves or old wood… aka: kindling.

As for the chairs, these are the exact ones that we picked up. We were aiming for zero maintenance, so their no-rot fade-resistant construction was appealing, and their eco-friendly design is cool too (they are in fact made from a blend of plastics which includes recycled milk jugs and detergent bottles!).

They are also especially comfortable (the extremely good reviews are what tipped the scales for us to choose these out of 679 options – and they are accurate – these chairs are GOOD). Like none of us want to get up and go to bed once we sit down. We stay in them for hours, even when the fire dies down to glowing embers and we certainly should go to bed.

So that is in short the story of how a fence plus some plain outdoor furniture created yet another spot outside for us to enjoy. And let me tell you, when you intentionally choose to have a lot less indoor space… AND you move somewhere warmer in the hopes of spending a lot more time outside… maximizing your outdoor zones is one of the best things you can do! Not only does it give you more space to spread out and enjoy beyond the walls of your house, but it draws you outside all the time too.

As for how we get to the fire pit area, we can access it from the glass doors in our bedroom, or from the front door, since we brought in this gate that swings open to let people in right here by our rain chain.

Here is the view from that gate as you enter the fire pit area. I enjoy that little decorative garden ball next to our big white planter (we found the ball at a local garden center, and have about a million of these large affordable white planters around our house). The garden ball (here is a similar one) is nearly exactly the same color as our patina’d rain chain (here is a similar one of those) and they are both a deeper/brighter version of the fence color so it is truly calming to have those tones layered throughout this area.

Here is a closer shot of my beloved glazed garden ball, simply for kicks.

Oh and to orient you a bit more, here is the hanging tent we brought in for the kids (more on that in this post) so you can get a better feel for this side of the house as a whole.

And because a video walk-through is in short worth 1,000 photos, here is a swift spin around the fire pit area:

Note: You can also view this video on YouTube, where you can turn on auto-generated closed captions if that is helpful for you.

Ok, now we can sleep at night knowing that this area that we enjoy has at last been documented on the journal. Unless we are right now sitting in the adirondack chairs, in which case we are tired but also quite comfy so we will keep putting off getting up for a few more hours.

P.S. You can see every single update that we have made to this house over the last 9 months in this spot. From the exterior updates to each indoor room, there has been plenty of progress.

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