DIY Backyard Fire Pit Area

For the first few years we lived in our house our backyard wasn’t a place where we wanted to hang out. The grass was patchy, there was nowhere to sit and hang out, and the only form of entertainment was a trampoline that our kids barely used. Last summer, I finely decided that I was sick of looking at the trampoline, so I made a post on our neighborhood page and listed it for free. Thankfully, it was gone by that afternoon and it was time for me to start planning for our DIY backyard fire pit area.

Once the trampoline was gone, this was the view from our deck. To be fair, I had no plans of doing a DIY backyard fire pit area until I saw this almost perfectly round circle. I quickly started doing the math and coming up with a plan. I realized that for a reasonable amount of money we could do the fire pit area instead of just putting down grass seed and calling it a day.

The first thing we did was dig out what was left of the grass in the area. We also tried to even out the area as best we could and straighten the circle as much as we could. This was definitely the hardest part and the most time consuming, but we knew it would be worth it in the end.

The next thing wed did was put down black landscape paper to keep weeds and grass from growing. You can get this paper at Lowe’s, Home Depot, or any other hardware store. You cut it to fit the area where you are putting it and then put stakes down to hold it in place. Not only do we use this landscape paper here, but we use it in our landscape as well under the mulch.

After the paper was down, it was time to pick the rock we wanted to use. We went to Lowe’s and they have several types of rock to choose from. We ended up picking a simple gray rock that wasn’t too big, or small for the area. I forgot to keep track of how many bags it took to fill this area, but it was a lot. We keep underestimating how many it would take and had to make a couple of trips to Lowe’s. Once the rock was down and it was all spread out, it was time for the fun part!

And here she is all done! It took me a while to find the adirondack chairs. Originally, I wanted black, but they were hard to find in plastic. I knew I wanted plastic because the wooden ones are expensive and a little harder to take care of. So, since I couldn’t find black, I went with the gray. I found them at Lowe’s and they were inexpensive and work perfect in this area. And believe it or not, I found the fire pit at our local grocery store. I like the shape and size and went for it! I would love to know what you all think about this project. We have already used it several times and can’t wait to use it many more!