Fire Pit Under an Awning: Heat Goes Straight Up
My sister Marnie walked onto my back porch two winters ago, took one look at the little steel fire bowl I’d hauled up from the yard sale on Wheaton Street,…
A Pergola Over a Fire Pit: Pretty and Pushing Your Luck
I bought a solid roof pergola for my patio in April, before I’d even ordered the fire pit, because I saw a photo of one online and decided the two…
An Open Fire Pit in the Backyard: Who Decides?
Okay so backyard fire pits have this reputation of being the easiest, most “just go outside and do it” purchase in the whole outdoor category. You see one on someone’s…
Concrete Under a Fire Pit: The Marks It Leaves
I have scorched concrete under my patio table right now. Actual permanent black moon shaped shadow, about eighteen inches across, exactly where the base of my fire pit sat for…
Fire Pits on the Beach: Sand Is Not a Free Pass
I was standing on a beach in South County a few Octobers back, at the point in the evening where the sky goes that particular shade of purple that makes…
Sandstone Fire Pits: Pretty and Layered
I built my first fire pit out of raw sandstone slabs I bought from a landscape yard on the east side of Indianapolis, and I want to be upfront that…
Gazebo Fire Pit Debate: Does a Roof Change Everything?
My friend Dana sent me a photo at eleven at night of her brand new ten by twelve gazebo with a fire pit table already glowing away underneath it, captioned…
Fire Pits in a Neighborhood: The Rules Nobody Reads
My neighbor Dale texted me a photo of my own backyard, taken from his kitchen window, no caption, just the picture, at 9:47 on a Tuesday night. Smoke was drifting…
City Backyard, Fire Pit: Squeezing One In
My mom stood in my backyard with a tape measure hanging out of her coat pocket, looked at the eight feet between my back door and the fence, then looked…
Indoor Fire Pits: Love the Idea, Not the Reality
I have typed “can you have a fire pit indoors” into a search bar four separate times over the past two years, always in November, always on the first night…