Saturday, June 9, 2012

Mini Makeover - DIY Firepit

Our backyard is still in a pretty untouched state from when we bought the house. We have a rickety old shed that is a major eyesore and a functional but super ugly chain link fence. We also have a random slab of concrete in one of the back corners of the yard that is about 48" x 50". We have no idea what the concrete was put there for or why. Charlie seems to think it held a Jesus statue or an overgrown souped up birdbath/fountain. I'm still undecided.


See? Super ugly and no form or function. After a brainstorming session we decided it would be the perfect base for a fire pit. At first we were thinking of getting a pre made metal fire pit. We did a little research and quickly realized that most of the options in our price range were ugly, too small or both. A metal fire pit also wouldn't really camouflage the beat up, cracked surface of the concrete. 

We decided to use cement patio blocks to construct the fire pit right on top of the slab. That way we could cover up the majority of the surface area and also customize the shape. A trip to Lowe's and a $120 later we were the proud owners of a trunk full of rocks. The rest of this project was super simple to complete. Charlie laid out the first layer of blocks to figure out how big we wanted the fire pit and then we stacked the top 2 layers. 20 minutes later and it was done. 


We had our first fire on Memorial Day weekend and I am officially obsessed with burning things. Such a quick and easy project with super fun results!