How to Build a Backyard Fireplace

Warm your hands and your heart as you enjoy your backyard fireplace.

There's nothing more relaxing on a beautiful summer evening than sitting outside, warming away the chill in front of your own backyard fireplace. Brings some marshmallows and toast a few or pop some fresh, hot popcorn while you kick back and chat about the day's or week's events.

Things You'll Need

• Several dozen bricks
• Mortar mix
• Large bucket
• Trowel
• Shovel
• Decorative patio stones (optional)
• Wire or metal rack

Instructions

1. Dig an area on your lawn in the dimensions you wish your fireplace to be. Add about a foot of space along the front of the fireplace if building a front-opening fireplace. Try to make the area look as level as possible. It needn't be perfectly level, and going to this extra trouble isn't necessary.

2. Mix up a large bucket full of mortar according to the package directions. Begin laying bricks, starting with the perimeter of the fireplace. Spread mortar with your trowel and place each brick firmly on top of the fresh mortar.

3. 

   Stack bricks in a pattern that doesn't put each brick directly on top of one other. Stagger the second row so that their centers are distributed over the area where two bricks are seamed together. Wipe off the excess mortar with your trowel as you stack each row. This not only makes for a sturdier structure, but appears a bit more decorative as well.

4. Continue this process until the backyard fireplace is the size you'd like. Allow the mortar to dry for at least 24 hours. In the meantime lay the decorative patio stone in front of the fireplace, in the extra 1-foot cutout made when digging up the grass. Tamp the stones down into the dirt with your foot or the handle end of your shovel.. You may apply mortar between the stones if you wish, or simply allow them to become adhered to the ground naturally.

5. Set your wire or metal rack in or on top of the fireplace (depending on whether you created a front or top-opening fireplace) and tap down with your shovel to ensure a secure fit. Add charcoal or wood. Light your fire and enjoy!

Tips & Warnings

• Have a bucket of water or garden hose available whenever using fire in your backyard.