Hi friends! Hope you had a wonderful weekend!!
Last week, after I posted about how I’d like to build a fire pit with my son, my friend Chris told me about fire pit kits she had seen locally. A couple days later I found myself at a stone yard having an ice cream with these little peeps of mine:
{PS – best marketing ploy ever by a nursery/stone yard – put an ice cream stand on site and the people will come!}
This is what I spied there:
Hmmmm. Kinda sorta intriguing.
But then there was THIS:
WHAT?? Outdoor fireplace kits? Now this is piquing my interest!
So of course I did what I do – I came home and did a little research.
This is the deal. If you’re in the market for an outdoor fireplace, you can have one built by a stonemason. You will be able to customize every aspect of the design, use natural materials, and create a dream space in your backyard. It will be gorgeous and you will love it. And it will cost a pretty penny.
Option #2: if you’re at all handy, you can purchase an outdoor fireplace kit that is geared towards the DIYer, and install it yourself. While it’s still not cheap, buying a kit and installing it yourself will save you a lot of money.
Mantels Direct has fireplace kits that start at $1639.
Some fireplace kits have a natural stone veneer (thinly sliced stone) or concrete “stone” that is applied over the base. Concrete stones or pavers are man-made from colored concrete that is poured into molds.
This fireplace kit from Home Depot is $2,225, plus shipping. The facade is “Rumble Stone” which have a uniform but but rustic affect.
From what I’ve seen online, I really like the products of a kit manufacturer named Stone Age Fireplace. Through dealers they sell outdoor fireplace kits that are faced with concrete stone products that I think look really natural. I love that these “stones” are variegated in size and color.
Evergreen Landscaping in Michigan features some Stone Age fireplaces on their site (along with lots of other beautiful landscape designs.)
While we would love to do an outdoor fireplace versus a fire pit, I’d rather put that money towards the
eradicate-the-bologna-countertops-fund
so a fire pit will be just fine!
More on my findings on fire pit kits tomorrow!
