Outdoor Stone Fireplaces

Where outdoor stone fireplaces normally built?
They are either built in direct relationship with the home or in complete juxtaposition to the home. Outdoor stone fireplaces also play important functional roles in patio seating areas and outdoor kitchens. Sometimes they are built into the kitchen itself, while at others they are constructed on an adjacent patio.

On larger estates, outdoor stone fireplaces are built in the back as getaway destinations, offering shelter under the stars and panoramic 360s of the Houston landscape.

How is an outdoor fireplace designed?
The inside is basically a box in which wood is burned, just like an indoor fireplace. There the similarities end, however, because the design possibilities for an outdoor fireplace are limitless compared to indoor versions. This is because they do not have to be built into a wall for support. Chimneys can be designed in any style or size that is structurally sound and appropriately reflective of home architecture, outdoor buildings, and the distinguishing features of the surrounding Houston landscape.

Are these ever a part of an outdoor room?
Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. They most commonly built as the foothold of an outdoor room. Outdoor rooms typically do not have walls the way we think of walls inside a home. Outdoor room walls are more like boundaries that mark space rather than barriers that block out the Houston landscape.

An outdoor stone fireplace can be the keynote to such an area, because it provides a central structure that acts as a focal point of design. Organic walls of hedges or ground cover plants can then extend from this focal point in either linear angles or radial designs.

What types of stones are used?
Any natural stone will work. Moss stone, sandstone, blue stone, and even brick can be used to construct these unique landmarks of landscape architectural design.

How do these structures support home architecture?
The most important thing they do is to extend the architecture into the yard. Geometric patterns evident in home period architecture and style constitute the conceptual elements of patio and chimney design.

This serves to expand the feeling of the home outdoors. It also make the garden feel more like
part of the home by adding and organic element to Houston outdoor living.

What softscape elements can be integrated into these structures?
You can add a small garden of sorts to an outdoor stone fireplace, although this is not what we normally would call a garden in professional landscaping design. It is more like a planter built into the patio and/or architectural walls surrounding the seating area. Grass, tropical plants, ferns, and flowers are popular vegetation for these plantings.

Stones can also be broken out of the patio and used as space to plant trees or bamboo. Decorative effects can be added by laying down gravel with ornamental stone work or combinations of gravel and drought resistant plants.