10 Great Outdoor Fireplaces

Long summer days fade into soft cooler nights, and the later the season the longer everyone loves to linger outside, savoring the closing days of summer down to the last drop. As fall approaches, the chances of a chill in the air go up, and that’s when the outdoor fireplace comes into its own. There is nothing to compare with the primitive attraction of a fire—the flames draw people together late into the night, talking, drinking, toasting marshmallows, singing or just sitting and watching the flames and letting the dark close in.

As a source of warmth, a fireplace serves as a means to enjoy the outdoors late into the year, but it is also a very sophisticated design element that contemporary landscape architects and designers are increasingly exploring for its value as an architectural feature and focal point, moving the warm social heart of the home out of the living room and into the garden, opening up the possibilities of the “outdoor room” as never before. The 10 examples shown here, collected by Garden Design editors on their travels in quest of great gardens, are just a glimpse of the design potential of the outdoor fireplace. Enjoy!

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The 14-foot retaining wall running the length of Fegie and Moshe Barkan’s hillside home in Studio City, California, could have spelled design disaster, but landscape architect Rob Pressman turned it into the focal point for a series of open-air rooms. In the sitting area, the wall becomes a yellow fireplace complete with log storage, art niches, seating walls and planters.

Rob Pressman of TGP Inc., 818-907-8460; www.tgpinc.net.

Left: An outdoor smoking lounge with its own fireplace and all the furnishings of a luxurious indoor living room is accommodated under a garden pavilion, forming a focal point at the end of the swimming pool. Landscape by Frank Perrino with interior designer Jarrett Hedborg who used comfortable Sutherland furniture and soft greens and terra cotta to link this space with the house interior.

Frank Perrino, 818-992-4908. Jarrett Hedborg, 310-271-1437.

Right: This octagonal paved outdoor room with dry-laid mica schist stone seating all around and a fireplace in rusted Cor-Ten steel is the ultimate summer hangout for a crowd of lucky kids in the Hamptons. They can cook hamburgers and still be near the swimming pool and tennis court. Plantings enclose the “room” and soften the stone.

Garden by Lisa Stamm, architecture by Dale Booher, e-mail: stammbooher@optonline.net. Stone by William Lanchantin, New York, 518-677-5247.

A fireplace was the pivotal element of a remodel at the Pressman home in Los Angeles. This stucco outdoor fireplace, which shares a chimney with the master bedroom fireplace, became the focal point of a new outdoor living room and adjacent dining patio. Concrete steps provide seating for group gatherings, and speakers are concealed in the soffits above the French doors. Architect Jeffrey Tohl.

Landscape by Rob Pressman of TGP Inc., 818-907-8460; www.tgpinc.net.

For a fanciful Hollywood Moorish-style home, this tiled keyhole-in-the-wall fireplace doubles as a traditional pizza and flatbread oven. Raised up to a handy 4 feet above the ground, the entire structure is made from concrete block, with firebrick inside, and stucco and handmade tiles from the Mortarless Building Supply and Tile Company on the outside.

Landscape architect Garett Carlson, www.wgarettcarlson.com. Contractor Native Designs, 818-509-9573.

Interior designer Vance Burke moved from New York to Los Angeles in quest of more living space. The West Coast climate allowed him scope for extending interiors into the garden—this outdoor fireplace is a prime example. Burke defined the space with low Moroccan-style built-in seating with cushions in white Sunbrella fabric; the green slate flooring is a continuation of the interior; jute matting makes it soft underfoot. He furnished the space with rugs, chairs and objects, altering the display as mood and occasion demand. A surround of bamboo, lit at night, adds to the sense of outdoors while providing privacy.

Vance Burke, 323-654-5602.

A Rumford-style fireplace is the centerpiece of an area near the art studio and pool house in the garden of Lynda and Dean Anderson’s vacation home on Lopez Island, Washington. The fireplace keeps them warm after evening dips in the pool, and with grilling attachments, it is even more useful for cooking dinner.

Architect Chapin Krafft, 206-284-1926. Landscaping by Dean and Lynda Anderson, 206-725-9514.

Jennifer Grey and Clark Gregg, both actors, wanted a casual place outside their Los Angeles home to sit around a fire and eat. But their yard was small, so landscape architect Rob Steiner designed a combination fireplace and dining table as an exterior extension of their living room, reached from the house via a set of glass doors that opens to a generous 12 feet. Set on a carpet of Del Rio pebbles and surrounded by a hedge of ‘Goodwin Creek Grey’ lavender and an olive tree, the concrete fire table takes the chill out of the air during morning coffee and evening dessert. It also serves as a convenient footrest, encouraging everyone seated around it to kick back and join in the conversation. The core of the fireplace is constructed of smooth-stuccoed concrete block; reinforcing steel supports the poured concrete tabletop.

Rob Steiner, 323-931-4425; www.robsteinergardens.com.

For Charles Eglee and Ninkey Dalton’s spa in Pacific Palisades, landscape architect Rob Steiner pared down the fireplace to the simplest of forms. Set alongside the spa and rolling mahogany spa cover, the fireplace is made of aggregate concrete and a sheet of oxidized steel bent to protect foliage, bounce heat back into the space and align with the wood trim.

Rob Steiner, 323-931-4425; www.robsteinergardens.com.

Cliff and Marcie Goldstein wanted a house extension “with a resort feel” where they could entertain friends. Santa Monica nights tend to be chilly, so a fireplace was the natural focal point for this 20-by-30-foot outdoor living space created between the back garage wall and the kitchen by landscape architect Mark Beall. To tie into the scale of the house, Beall used trellis beams to create a ceiling and installed French doors to make an easy connection between interior and exterior. He also matched plaster finishes and paint colors with the house, while interior designer Kristin Pon selected fireplace tile and outdoor furniture to echo the rich earth tones of the kitchen.

Mark Beall + Associates, 323-662-8252; www.mbeall.com. Kristin Pon, 310-312-1207.