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Home Decor
07.21.15

Outdoor Pergola and Fire pit

outdoor-firepit-pergola
Hi friends!  I’m back from Atlanta!  What a beautiful city.  Haven (the DIY/home decor blog conference I attended) was incredible.  Everyone was so friendly, the classes were amazing and I especially enjoyed finally meeting friends I’ve had for years on-line!  Blogging is a wonderful thing.  :)  I’ll have to do a recap at some point but for now I’m sharing our outdoor pergola and fire pit area.  These pictures have been sitting on my computer for a few months and if I’m not careful I’ll be sharing them in December when you all want to see Christmas trees, not outdoor pillows.  :)

Our fire pit/pergola area has been a work in progress for a while now.
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Here is a picture of this space during construction.  The little bike/scooter path I designed for the kids is my favorite part.  Just a simple cement path that winds around the yard.  My kids are on it every day!
dinosaur party
When we first moved into the house a year and a half ago (has it really been that long!?) it looked like the above picture.  This was taken at my little buddy’s 4th birthday party so please look past the lovely orange dinosaur balloon and you can see what the fire pit looked like after we moved in.  It was turned horizontally like the pool and we surrounded it with stones.
custom-firepit
But there were a few issues with this set up.  First of all, ground cover was supposed to grow in-between the stones, but because of the soil in our area it didn’t grow and always looked messy.  The uneven stones also made it hard to place chairs around the fire pit – nothing was level.  We had planned on placing a couch along the back side of the fire pit by the bike path, but the day the yard crew was placing the fire pit stone I went to the new house and could tell it was too close to the bike trail to fit a couch in-between.  I told my landscaper (who is a good friend of ours) that I was worried the fire pit was too close to the bike trail and he assured me it wasn’t.  I told him it was and he smiled at me and said “if you’re right, I’ll pull it out and move it all for free.”  I said “Deal.”
rectangle-outdoor-firepit
A few months later he was tearing it out.  Not to say I’m always right,  but.. I’m always right.  Ha!  :)  Kidding!  Sort of.  ;)  He did realize when we gave him couch dimensions it was too close to the bike path and would need to be moved.  The stones weren’t working anyway so we decided to start from scratch.
k in back yard
This picture from last summer makes me laugh.  Kole looks like we were all feeling about construction at this point.  Over it!

Since we were starting from scratch with the fire pit placement I decided it would be fun to create more of a cozy seating area.  I have always loved pergolas so we extended and added onto the white beams we started with.
firepit-pergola
This is how it all turned out!  A cozy spot to roast marshmallows and visit by the fire.  With couches that fit.  ;)
firepit-for-outdoor-entertaining
You can see we decided to keep the flagstone, but not have spaces in-between.  We also decided to turn the fire pit the other direction so there would be plenty of room for furniture along both sides.
outdoor-entertaining
I love that there is so much space now!  We can easily host another family or two and all have room to sit around the fire pit.
pottery-barn-rug
We used the same furniture we put in our outdoor entertaining area.
outdoor-firepit
Couches and chairs are the Leagrave set from Restoration Hardware.
leagrave-couch-restoration-hardware
Pillows are all from Pottery Barn.  From left to right is the Malibu Medallion Pillow, then the Izmit Print Pillow and the Dreyton pillow (no longer available).
outdoor-firepit-furniture
The pillows on our chairs are the Katrea Print pillow (my fav!).  The three pillows that are still in stock are on sale.  I’m tempted to buy a couple more of the Katrea pillows for inside the house.  This is the best time to buy outdoor furniture/pillows.  Not at the beginning of the summer when everything is full price like I did.  (Oops!)  Always hard though because if you wait for sales you run the risk of items you love being out of stock.  And I really love these pillows.  :)  Taking good care of them all so they will last a long time!
outdoor-pillows-pottery-barn
Aren’t these two pillows especially happy?  They say “come and sit on me and forget everything else going on at the moment…”

At least that’s what they say to me.  :)
rectangle-outdoor-fireplace
Another change we made to this space was to pull out some of the grass and put in this garden area on each side of the fire pit.
garden-around-firepit
grey-pavers
Things are still new and growing but this will be full of color when everything starts filling in and blooming!  Yellows, purples, reds and whites.  We’ve been grateful for this garden area during our drought.  It takes so much less water!  If this drought keeps up we are planning on pulling out more grass and replacing it with garden areas like this.  I’m actually so glad I took these pictures a few months ago because we now only water twice a week and my grass isn’t looking this good at the moment.  We did have a tropical rain storm over the weekend though so fingers crossed we get more of that in our future!
outdoor-entertaing-firepit
Bike/scooter path is still in tact!
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Now my kids ride underneath the back of the pergola.  Eventually I want to grow vines running up and over everything.
outdoor-firepit-trellis
So that’s our new pergola/fire pit area!  Definitely more work than we thought it would be getting things finished, but well worth it.

Can I interest anyone in a S’more?

:)

*affiliate links used

xoxo, Erin
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49 thoughts on “Outdoor Pergola and Fire pit”

  1. I have been obsessed with that color combo. It looks so pretty in your outdoor area’s. I would love a S’more. It would be great to roast one and sit and talk under the pergola. We were planing a trip to San Diego but we, (I) have been consumed with the new house. I have a list a mile long but I am finally getting to check some things off. Only if there was more time in a day.
    Have a great week. xo

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    1. Cathy if you ever make it my way you better call me for sure! Would love to have you over! SO happy to hear you are settling into your new home. I know all about the ever growing house to-do list. Never ends, right!? One day at a time for both of us! xo

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  3. Welcome back, Erin! Happy to hear you had a great time at your conference. :) Your fire pit area looks amazing. You are a smart cookie and your construction guy/friend should have known better than to say things would fit sight unseen. But, he’s a guy sooo….LOL On the flip side, tweaking this after you lived with it for a while helped you to create a truly amazing space. I can just imagine you all sitting out there roasting marshmallows for s’mores. Those pillows are gorgeous, too! So glad you got a little rain. I know it is desperately needed. Hope more is soon to follow!

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    1. Thank you Jeanne! I know right!? Guys! If they’d always just listen to us… :) Really it did end up being a good thing because it gave us more time to think about what we really wanted for that space. You live and learn, right? Thanks for your kind words sweet friend! xo

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  7. What a beautiful space!! It looks like it must be so cozy to gather around. I love that idea of a bike path in the yard – my kids would LOVE something like that :-)

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  8. I love the bike path – what a great idea! The fire pit area is amazing as well. I’m curious when you mention taking good care of your outdoor pillows so they last longer, what exactly do you do to care for them? Do you bring them in at certain times of the year, or whenever it rains, and if so, where do you store them?

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    1. Thank you Kim! K – so I’m probably a little overly paranoid about everything right now because it’s all so new, but I’ve been bringing in all of the un covered pillows if there is even a chance of a drizzle and also whenever we go out of town. I have my kids run and grab them all and for now I’ve been storing them in our mudroom closet but I’d love to add a small shed or something on the side of our yard eventually to store them in so I can keep them outside but covered. Still working on that one! :) xo

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  10. You have a fabulous yard–thanks for sharing. Great idea you had about the scooter path–when our kids were young we lived on a street with no sidewalks and it was a real pain when they wanted to ride trikes and bikes.

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    1. Thank you Maureen! I dreamed about that bike path every day for six years living in our past house with no room for the kids to ride! It really is a fun addition to the yard. :) xo

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  11. Really beautiful, Erin. I’m about to tear up our yard to dig for a pool, and finally get fences built. I’m so not looking forward to the process, but I am the result. It’s great to see your during/after photos for motivation!

    Your lot is much larger than mine, but I’m wondering how long the whole process took soup to nuts? Did you buy your trees that large, or have they grown? So much to think about, but I love your results!

    Reply

    1. Hi Madeline! Thank you! The whole yard process to get us where we are now from start to finish was almost two years! But the actual fire pit re-do took around six months. Our trees have all grown – they were smaller when we planted them a year and a half ago when we moved in. It’s not always a fun process, but yes – definitely worth it! You will absolutely love it when it’s all done and every year things will grow and look better! Thanks again for your sweet comment and good luck with everything! xo

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  12. Love your outdoor living space so much!! Perfect for your fam and for entertaining! And I’m so jelly of all that land you have! Oh my gosh, if we had a fire pit, I would be outside every night eating s’mores :D

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  13. Hi Erin! loving it, you guys did a great job! Love seeing the progress since the last time I was here. Trying to get back to the blogs I love, who knows, maybe one day we could meet at one of those conferences! ;)

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  16. Hi Erin –
    What a great job you did on this entertaining space! It looks so inviting and I am LOVING the color scheme. I adore blue and turquoise. I’ve been wondering how your living room was coming along. Is it almost time for an update ?? ;)

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    1. Hi Kim! YEA! So happy you like it! Thank you! Oh my word – it IS! I have some pics of the drapes and pillows but we are still waiting on the chairs. They are taking FOREVER and a day to get here! I’ll share an update next week! Just for you. ;) xo

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  18. Girlfriend, this is SO insanely beautiful! I love every detail in your spaces. We have redesigned our pool plans no less than 20 times now, and after seeing your little snippet I’m more convinced that’s the route I want to go. I may be needing some pool pics from you soon ;)

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    1. Thank you Sarah! How fun you are doing your pool! YEA! I know all about redesigning plans 20+ times. Ha! :) I’m sure it will turn out amazing! xo

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  19. Gorgeous! I love the drought tolerant garden. Can’t wait to see photos of it fully in bloom.

    Have you heard of earth turf? It’s a grass/turf mix that requires significantly less water and stays greener in drought like conditions than many other grass types. We’re planning to put some in when we buy our house in Northern California. :)

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    1. Thank you Valerie! I have heard of earth turf! We have some fake turf around our trampoline and we’ve thought about using it in other places. My only concern is that it gets hot and my kids are always running around with bare feet. Definitely something to consider though because I love the look of grass! Congrats on a new home in Northern Cal! :) xo

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  21. I’m almost as obsessed with the outside of your house as I am the inside…and that’s saying a lot. :)

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  22. I love it! It seems very inviting and relaxing at the same time. I would love to spend a vacation with such an atmosphere. I am deeply hooked with outdoor designs and blogs…and all that I can say is, yours are very nicely done!

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  23. Hi, I just love your designs back here. Do you remember which flagstone you used? I also live in So cal and i am looking for something similar. thank you!!

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    1. Hi Sarah! Thank you so much! I wish I could remember the name of it but I can’t. You could definitely take a pic from my blog into the store when you are looking and see if they have something similar! xo

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