Choosing a Firepit or Outdoor Fireplace for Your Landscape Design in Phoenix

YEAR-ROUND OUTDOOR ENTERTAINMENT

Phoenix’s mild winters and low-humidity evenings let your backyard double as a four-season living room…

When designing a complete landscape, many homeowners choose to include a firepit or outdoor fireplace in Phoenix in their backyard. Either of these can be a perfect complement to your landscape design while providing an all-season space for fun, entertaining and relaxing—especially during cooler seasons.

Which should you choose? What’s the difference? How do you decide? Here we explore some of the key differences, features and benefits of firepits and outdoor fireplaces in Phoenix, so you can design a backyard landscape that’s perfect for you and your lifestyle. Start your planning with our Budget Calculator.

Quick Comparison: Firepit vs. Fireplace

• Social Interaction: Firepits allow for 360-degree gathering, making them ideal for larger parties and social interaction.
• Focal Point: Fireplaces act as a structural anchor and visual focal point, typically located on the perimeter of the landscape.
• Space Efficiency: Firepits generally take up less visual and physical space, fitting well in smaller Phoenix backyards.
• Customization: Both options offer wood-burning or gas configurations with finishes like travertine, stucco, or stone veneer.

Custom Outdoor Firepits are popular

A firepit is a freestanding masonry structure your family and guests can gather around on all sides. Usually built on the interior of an entertainment space, they’re great for family gatherings and parties, where people can sit or stand facing each other across the fire.

When deciding on a firepit you have several options to choose from:

• Wood burning or gas: gas burning is simple and clean, with on and off controls at the flip of a switch, while burning wood provides that good old fashion campfire crackling.
• Round, square or rectangle: round is classic, tried and true, while square complements a more linear design, and rectangle offers a more contemporary look. Depending on the shape you may have different options for height as well.
• Finishes: most homeowners choose a top surface finish of travertine or paver cap with a siding finish of veneer or stucco.
• Materials: choose heat-rated masonry, natural stone, or glass-fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) for long-term durability in Phoenix conditions.

You might choose a firepit if you like to host larger parties, offering more sitting or standing room and providing a centerpiece for guests to gather around. They can be well suited to smaller backyards and visually take up less space than a fireplace. You can also check out our design ideas for a fire pit in Phoenix.

SPARK Your Imagination With a Custom Fireplace

A fireplace is a larger masonry structure, often built with additional features or integrated with another element of your landscape design. Typically enjoyed from one side, a fireplace can be built as a standalone structure with columns and seat walls, or built into your ramada or pergola.

In either case, a fireplace provides a visual focal point on the perimeter of your landscape, offering an intimate place for one to four people to enjoy morning coffee or an evening glass of wine.

Options for your custom fireplace in Phoenix are only limited to your imagination:

• Integrated or standalone: build as a standalone structure on the perimeter of your entertainment space, or build directly into your ramada or pergola roof structure.
• Features: columns, seat walls, planters, mantle, hearth or TV niche, just to name a few.
• Height and placement: you will have some flexibility, but due to safety ordinance codes there are some restrictions, such as height and the distance your fireplace must be set away from walls or other structures.

Like firepits, you’ll also choose from wood-burning or gas and the top surface and side finishes.

Fireplaces add an element of class. They serve as a beautiful focal point in your landscape, adding an impressive statement to any backyard space.

Let’s Get Cracklin

Whether you choose to add an outdoor fireplace or a firepit as part of your landscape design in Phoenix, it’s gonna be hot! When you hire Straight Line Landscape, we’ll design and build a fire structure and landscape that’s perfect for you, your family and your lifestyle. Just don’t get your toes too close to the fire ?

Frequently Asked Questions