DIY Backyard Mosaic Firepit

$200
2 Days
Medium
I really love my house, but my favorite part has to be my backyard. It’s truly my Florida oasis.
Before summer kicked into full gear we replaced the old back deck with a new BRIGHT GREEN deck. (Check out my Florida Backyard Reveal to see how it turned out.) It was a good start to the backyard makeover, but the next step was adding a fire element. We have been talking about this firepit for a while, by mid-summer we decided that we just had to build it. We probably should have waited until the weather cooled down a little bit, but we were just very excited! It was ridiculously hot during the days when we were building it, and it’s been REALLY hot at night too, so we have only used it twice… But I’m on a mission, as soon as it’s not too hot to sit by a fire, I want to be lighting stuff on fire every weekend!
To build the firepit we bought all the supplies (except the mosaic tiles) from Lowes. The concrete pavers and retention blocks were really easy to work with.


First we dug out the grass and leveled the ground to lay down the bottom level of pavers in a square.


Then we placed the concrete retention pieces in a circle centered on the pavers. Once the retention pieces were in place, we used outdoor grout to hold them in place. Once the grout dried, there was no moving it, the firepit was solidly in place.


The next step was the most fun. I waited a week, then came back and added mosaic tiles to the top.
Let me back up a second, and explain where these tiles came from.


We have a little hut on the side of our house that we call Pineapple Express (since we call our house The Pineapple House). Pineapple express is a little run-down and the floor isn’t the best. When we went to look under the hut to find out why the floor was raised up and uneven, we found a bunch of tile sample books!!! The previous owners must have been interior designers. My excitement level was out of this world. A TON of free, colorful tile to play with!


The white edge of tiles came from the extra tile I had left over from the kitchen backsplash I did when we first moved in.


So to do the mosaic, I took a hammer to my pretty tiles and broke them into a million pieces. Then I used the sticky tile adhesive paper to place the tiles all the way around the firepit before grouting them down. It was not hard at all to do, just very time consuming (and hot… in 90 degree weather).
Read more about this project and see tutorial photos by visiting the link below.
Kristy Lingebach
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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3 of 4 questions
  • Allan Hovey Allan Hovey on Sep 09, 2017

    Very nice job building a great looking project! From the pictures it is hard to tell how you vented the sides to allow more air to get to the burning wood. Would you please elaborate?

    Al

  • Abigail Abigail on Apr 06, 2018

    As Allan Hovey asked...how and where is this vented? Thanks in advance.

  • Sherrie Jones @ home Sherrie Jones @ home on Oct 21, 2019
    I plan on trying this but first I want to know in detail how they vented it so the air can nurse the flame. To keep it burning. You never really talked about that. Can you post it for all of us who really want to know?
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2 of 75 comments
  • Joanie Joanie on Feb 13, 2018

    This fire pit stands out among'st all the ones I have seen or sit around.!!!!  Love it!!

  • Erin Erin on Mar 19, 2021

    I wonder how long it’s lasted now that we’re a few years down the road.

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