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Porches & Decks Design Dilemma Landscape Design

ideas for pergola and fire pit needed

5 years ago

This is a picture of what we have now. We would like to add a pergola and fire pit. Tv will be on center wall of covered area. Design where we could eventually add an outdoor kitchen. We appreciate any and all ideas/designs. Thanks in advance!

Featured Answer

fnmroberts

5 years ago

Here are a few pix of ours. Pergola is 8 x 12, patio 24x26 and fire pit a 12’ radius. It’s a gas fire pit.

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Comments (10)

armchairshopper
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I looked to see if you have any idea books, and you do not. Search Houzz photos and build some idea books. I am looking to put a greenhouse or pergola on the side of my home to cover a stairway to the basement. Some of the photos in my idea book might be more suitable for your application.

https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/106213080/thumbs/greenhouses-and-pergolas
PRO
Yardvaark
5 years ago
A TV implies some comfortable furniture to watch it from. Is that in the cards? If it is, it takes up some room. An outdoor kitchen can be minimal or elaborate. You need to figure out how much furniture and appliances you'll want to incorporate into your plans and then plan out the whole space as a complete unit. It sounds like patio expansion might be in order so someone planning would need to see the complete surroundings of the area. These things would be laid out in PLAN VIEW, so you'll need to draw a simple base plan as a starting point.

Budget controls everything so get an idea up front of how much $ you wish to spend. If limits of the project are going to be constrained by budget, you'd want to know that before designing something that costs twice as much as you're willing to spend.
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You are going to need to put a proper base layer under the pavers so they stay stable since you are in a cold area. Why not make it somewhat thicker so the pavers cover the hatch and then you can put the fire pit wherever you want it rather than having it dictate the fire pit location? Or is the hatch in your ideal fire pit location already? With a well-prepared base, the patio can be in any configuration that covers the area, and the fire pit also has flexibility of location. Or if that isn't the best location for the patio, make it something else such as a garden bed with a realistic fake rock over the hatch and locate the fire pit and patio in the ideal area. I guess I am asking if that is truly the best spot for the fire pit and patio since I have no way of determining that from the photo. If it isn't, find a different solution for the hatch.
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Given that the retaining wall retains a SLOPE, it makes sense to have it step down. But 10 irregular stepdowns is very messy looking. 3 uniformly equal step-downs would look much better. Considering that you are incorporating a patio next to it, it would make sense that the patio edge and the retaining wall footprint exactly coincide in some attractive way ... like a real shape ... like a CIRCLE (since that also makes sense with a fire pit.) I gave you an idea about it in perspective view ... but that's subject to misinterpretation and is only designed to inspire you into the ball park. It is in PLAN view where the wall and patio layout would be worked out. Then, you could see the exact configuration. Plan view starts with a base plan along the lines of this, where you can see how things are laid out. It is drawn to scale in order to be useful ... An example: (Presently, your wall does not lead into an actual circle.) You might study "retaining wall sections" (search Google) to see how various ones are constructed.
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decoenthusiaste
5 years ago

Summer Kitchen · More Info
Try the pit away from the kitchen/lounge area.
Allison John
Original Author
5 years ago
@fnmroberts

Did you build the pergola by yourself? Love your space!
fnmroberts
5 years ago
Thank you. Everything is DIY, including the patio and pergola. I have better photos taken several years ago but I’ll need to access them from the computer rather than a phone.
Allison John
Original Author
5 years ago
@fmnroberts do you happen to have the plans you used for pergola or an estimate of what supplies cost?
fnmroberts
5 years ago
Allison, here is youtube made about a month ago. I'll try linking older Photobucket pictures in another post.

I built the Pergola about 11-12 years ago. I believe some pix of the plans I developed are contained in the Photobucket album. I want to say the materials exceeded $1,000 but the footings were installed earlier when building the patio and I have no recall about them.

https://youtu.be/DXdP9U__HN8
fnmroberts
5 years ago
Allison, hopefully this link will work and show you better detail of the pergola and patio. Unfortunately I don't see the design pix here and honestly don't know where to locate them. Maybe by studying the assembly pictures you'll get an idea how I made the parts. Good luck.

http://s1277.photobucket.com/user/treeshouse/library/Patio%20and%20Back%20yard?sort=2&page=1
Allison John
Original Author
5 years ago
Thank you!

Any ideas on how to add a boarder to the existing slab to give it a nicer, finished look?

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