How to Arrange Patio Furniture Around Your Fire Pit
Adding a fire feature to your yard can greatly enhance your enjoyment of outdoor spaces, providing for additional entertaining opportunities that last long into summer nights or even the cool evenings of fall and winter. This is great for Sioux Falls homeowners that want to make the most of their outdoor living spaces. Adding a fire pit is just the first step, though. Next you need to figure out how to arrange seating to create an inviting and relaxing entertaining space. Here are a few tips for arranging patio furniture around your fire pit.
Consider the Elements
If your yard tends to get a strong cross-breeze, it could mean that people sitting on one side of the fire pit get little to no heat while those on the other side get blasted. If you’re not sure how the breezes run through your yard, try hanging a windsock and watching it for a few days. When you know which direction the wind tends to blow, you can properly arrange patio furniture so that everyone is comfortable around your fire pit.
Create Conversation Zones
Fire pits were made for intimate gatherings, whether it’s just you and your honey snuggling up to watch the stars, you’ve got the whole family out roasting marshmallows, or you’re sipping wine with a few close friends after dinner. This means you should avoid formal seating arrangements, such as a sofa flanked by two chairs around a coffee table, in favor of creating loose, even haphazard seating arrangements that encourage intimate conversation and produce a relaxing atmosphere. Placing benches and chairs in loose groupings in a semicircle around the pit is ideal.
Add Different Types of Seating
It might be a rare occasion where you have a ring of family and friends crowding around your fire pit. More likely you’ll have just a few guests present for a more intimate gathering, and the types of patio furniture you choose should reflect this aesthetic. You could go for something as simple as a few Adirondack chairs for lounging or a comfy outdoor sofa and a couple of chairs, complete with side tables for drinks. Or you might add a bistro set or two.
Whatever you choose, you don’t want the setup to feel too formal, so you’ll want to avoid adding a full dining set or placing matching sofas across the fire pit from each other, just for example. A little mix-and-match could make the space feel much more laid back.
Test for Closeness
Whether you’re using the firepit for light on summer evenings or heat when the weather cools, you should always test furniture placement to ensure that people seated around the fire pit maintain a comfortable temperature.When placing furniture, don’t forget to make sure you can move around it, whether you’re moving around chairs and tables, walking between seating and the fire pit, or skirting the outside perimeter. This will ensure that guests are able to move around to get food and drinks, head to the rest room, or join different conversation groups without having to make everyone get up and move.