A boulder fire pit and a curved seat wall for a back garden in the pines

Wooded lots are common around here, and they are lovely for about four months of the year. A fire pit and a wall to sit on is what gets people back outside for the other eight.

Boulders or a built ring

A pit made from set boulders reads as if it was always there, which suits a garden backing onto pines. A coursed stone ring with a cap is tidier and easier to sit close to. Both work wood-burning or gas, and both get the same treatment underneath: a base built to carry the weight without settling and pulling the paving apart around it.

Seating comes first, not last

The wall is the part people forget to budget for and the part they use most. A curved seat wall at the right height takes the same number of people as a set of chairs, never blows over, and gives the patio an edge to hold it together. On a sloping lot it doubles as the retaining wall you needed anyway.

Scaled to the space

The patio is sized around the fire and the route to the back door, so there is room to walk behind the seating rather than squeezing past it. Everything is laid on a compacted base, edged, and swept in so the joints stay put.

We build the whole thing, from the excavation and the base through to the stone and the final sweep, with our own crew.