DIY Simple Fire Pit

***WARNING***
The photos that are displayed in this post were not taken by myself. Unfortunately, I had to work the day my husband decided to complete our new fire pit, but he was sweet enough to attempt to take photos for me for each step (sweet, right?), and he did a pretty damn good job, considering the weather was rainy. Please forgive me on this post for not having "high-quality-blog-worthy-photos," this is REAL life, and it happens. At least you'll still get the "picture" --- haha! Get it?

Ok, so here it is. Finally. The DIY fire pit that everyone posts about. I've seen it on everyone's Outdoor board or Landscaping board or DIY board on Pinterest. I mean, honestly, I pinned probably 7 different ones before we did our own. The difference in ours is, we took a little bit from every post we read and made it our own. IT. WAS. SIMPLE. Like, a monkey could do it - simple. The things you will need for this project are:

1. Landscaping pavers
2. River rock or pebbles
3. Sand (optional - we did not use this)
4. A wheelbarrow
5. Hand tamper
6. Orange spray paint
7. Rope
8. Screw driver
9. Shovel
10. Scrap 2x4" (to place level on)
11. Level
12. PL Premium landscaping/concrete adhesive

*We opted for a bigger fire pit, because my husband wanted to make sure bigger pieces of wood could fit easily in the pit to be burned. So we went for a 3-foot inner diameter. Check your local landscaping/home improvement store for different options. We went to Lowe's and purchased the largest pavers we could. I think we ended up buying 45 pavers and used 42.

So, the first step is to obviously figure out where you want your pit to be in your yard. Then you'll want to spray paint the circle on the ground where the stone will be laid. To come up with the radius, you take the inner circle diameter measurement, divide by 2 + the depth of the paver + another foot for the outside = the radius --- make sure all measurements end up in inches - it just makes it easier.

Our math problem looked like this (feet converted to inches): 36"/2+7.5"+12"=37.5"
For a 4 foot inner circle: 48"/2+7.5"+12"=43.5"
For a 3 foot inner circle but smaller pavers: 36"/2+4"+12"=34
*It just all depends on the inner circle diameter, the depth of the pavers, and the amount of stone you want around the outside of your fire pit.

After you have your radius figured out, you are going to measure your rope to this. One end will be staked in the middle of where the pit will be (we used a screw driver in the ground to hold the rope in the center), the other end we taped at 37.5" and kept the spray can at that point while spraying the circle on the ground by swinging the rope 360 degrees. It sounds more complicated typing this out, but it was really easy. Here is, as good of a photo as I could get... (It was taken a few days after spraying it, and it had rained in between those days also - GOOD OLE INDIANA SPRING WEATHER, blah).

We messed up our measurements the first time, so there are 2 orange circles. The outer circle, is the correct measurement. 

Once the circle is painted on the ground, it's time to cut the grass and pull the sod up. Keep the sod for any bare spots in your yard. As you can tell by the photos, we had A. Lot. of bare spots... new-yard-struggles ya'll.

Next, the ground will need to be tamped so it's packed and helps with the stone from settling. Try to get this as level as you can, keeping in my mind the slope of your yard. This is also the step where you can add sand on top of the tamped dirt to help even more with settling.

After the dirt is tamped, fill in the circle with the type of stone you desire. It honestly doesn't matter, I just wouldn't get anything too crumbly, since it will be getting pretty hot with the fire. We opted for simple "river pebbles" from Lowe's. Make sure to get the stone as level as possible. Using a scrap board and setting a level on top of that will help.

Next, set the first layer of pavers in the rocks, making sure it creates a circle in the center, and that it is as level as possible. My husband spaced out the pavers just a little, for 1) allowing air into the bottom of the pit to keep the fire "alive" and 2) if they were all touching, it wouldn't make a perfect 3' inner circle diameter.

Before placing the 2nd and 3rd layers of pavers on, make sure to apply the landscaping adhesive to both sides of the pavers - it adhered better that way. After you get the last layer on, you're done! That's it. So simple, see?

(How about those cute Hubby work boots making an appearance in the photo? He did such as good job on this!)

Another step you can do, but we didn't, is to spray the pavers on the inside of the pit with high heat spray paint to help them from becoming weak and crumbling. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, so we opted not to. Plus I didn't want the inside of the fire pit black. You could, though, put a metal ring on the inside. Again, we opted not to, but would, if needed, down the road.

So, there you have it. The easiest, outdoor, DIY project you can do for a pretty tight budget. I think we spent a total of $125.00 on everything. Obviously we already had the screw driver, rope, spray paint, and shovel, and we borrowed the wheelbarrow and hand tamp, but everything else we bought.

Let me know if you decide to complete a fire pit this summer. Attach your photos of it below.

In other news... we are currently completing a new coffee table using Ana White's plans for the Rustic X Coffee Table. I'm using a special DIY stain to make it look weathered - I'm pretty excited! I will let you all know how that turns out, so make sure you are following on Facebook at www.facebook.com/theyellowbarn1

Until next time,