We have been enjoying this hangout for months, but it wasn’t on the blog … until today. This is essentially a lesson in how a fence can make a huge difference in defining an area, which could lead to the addition of some simple outdoor furnishings (in this case, it was four Adirondack chairs and a fire pit – which hit the ground and instantly created a brand new “outdoor room” For our entire family to enjoy.) We hang out here and make s’mores at least once a week (and sometimes much more), so it was a very welcome addition. Especially when everyone spends a lot of time at home so something new and fresh like this extra lounge area feels extra special we even made little desserts for Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, so soon the whole family became the tradition. There he is even before we draw the fence. I tell you, the chairs and the right hole hit the ground, and we were immediately super excited to start using them right away. We also now consider ourselves s’more enthusiasts, so we can tell you all the fun mixes we’ve tried, like cookies instead of Graham biscuits, and peanut butter cups on top of Hershey’s chocolate bars – and maybe our favorite change: Andes Mint instead of Chocolate (I know this sounds weird, but trust me on this one). This is a setting at night with a fence drawing. You know John has string lights on a smart external plug that automatically lights up at dusk, drawing us out like moths into a flame. Here’s the new look from our bedroom during the day, which is about 780% better than it was before (we used to only look on the street). From the start, we envisioned creating this private little patio outside of our bedroom to enjoy some adult rest time after the kids go to bed, which definitely does, but with the addition of a fire pit we can also enjoy this area together – which is even better. Do you remember how I said the view got 780% better? Well, this is what that area looked like without the fence. Our house is on a corner, and it was often just a dream field of pine needles bordering the street on two sides. We always imagined setting up a fence in this area thanks to our street neighbor who has a similar situation, and the fence made the difference. So here we are, with the fence added and painted (the color is Halcyon Green by Sherwin Williams, which changes colors throughout the day – thus appearing greener or lighter in some of these images, depending on the cloud cover, time of day, etc.). The color below is probably what it looks like most often (it looks more blue than usual in the image above, most likely because the sun was behind a cluster of clouds). We were aiming for a nice calming color that nodded in the greenery outside without feeling too loud, crazy, or boring, and we’re really happy with it. Note: Our Friends’ Kitchen Cabinets are the same color and look great! You can see them here. As for the chair and fire pit detailing, this is exactly the fire pit we bought. We really wanted a sturdy, solid look, and finding a 30 بعرض wide pit with a nice clean concrete bowl was not easy – especially at this price point. We have used it a lot and so far we are really happy with it. You can see in that photo above that the fire pit is placed on a large square concrete paving (it’s easier to spot the gray angle than it is to the right of the plinth in the photo above). Here’s a closer shot below: The fire pit instructions make it clear that it shouldn’t sit directly on a wooden deck, and it recommends placing it on a concrete base, so we’ve slipped a large concrete paving under our floor. The white portion of the bowl isn’t heated at all (the metal part that actually holds the logs flaming on top definitely works!) But we’re fans of following the directions. So we wanted to point this out to anyone else who is getting one. You don’t just want to put it on pine needles or a pile of leaves or old wood … aka: kindling. As for the chairs, these are exactly the chairs we bought. We aimed to be maintenance-free, so its mildew-resistant, fade-proof design was appealing, and its eco-friendly design was great too (it’s actually made with a plastic mix that includes recycled milk jugs and detergent bottles!). It’s also very comfortable (very good reviews are what tipped the scales for us to choose these out of 679 options – which is accurate – these chairs are fine). Like none of us want to get up and go to bed as soon as we sit down. We stay in it for hours, even when the fire goes out and turns into glowing embers, and we definitely should be sleeping. This is the story of how the fence plus some simple outdoor furniture created another place outside for us to enjoy. And let me tell you, when you purposefully choose to have a lot less indoor space … and you’re moving into a warmer place hoping to spend more time outside … maximizing your outdoor areas is one of the best things you can do! Not only does it give you more space to spread out and have fun outside the walls of your home, it also pulls you outside all the time. As for how to get to the fire pit area, we can access it from the glass doors in our bedroom, or from the front door, since we added this swing gate to let people in through our rain chain. This is the view from that gate as you enter the fire pit area. Love this little decorative garden ball next to the big white planter (we found the ball at a local garden center, and we have about a million of these reasonably priced large white farms around our home). The garden ball (here is a similar ball) is roughly the same color as our patina rain streak (here’s one similar to that) and both are a deeper / brighter version of the fence color so it’s really soothing those tones throughout this area. Here’s a closer shot of the much-loved glass garden ball, just for kicks. And to guide you a little more, here’s the hanging tent we added for the kids (more on that in this post) so you can feel better about this aspect of the house as a whole. And since the video is basically worth 1,000 photos, here’s a quick spin around the fire pit area: Note: You can also watch this video on YouTube, where you can turn on auto-generated closed captions if that’s useful to you. Well, we can now sleep at night knowing that this area that we love is finally documented on the blog. Unless we’re currently sitting in Adirondack chairs, in which case we’re feeling tired but also very rested, so we’ll continue to delay waking up for a few more hours. Note: You can see every update we’ve had to this house over the past 9 months in this place. From exterior updates to every interior room, there has been a lot of progress. * This post contains affiliate links * More posts from Young House Love
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