Sharing all the tips & tricks for upgrading our DIY Pea Gravel Fire Pit Patio for less than $100 in just 1 day with pictures!
Just a few short years ago we created a stone fire pit & it was great but definitely in need of a makeover.
Our pea gravel fire pit is now one of our family’s favorite spots to hang out in our backyard, especially when we have large parties.
Stop by to check out all the details of our gravel fire pit makeover!
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Pea Gravel Fire Pit Patio Makeover
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Gravel Fire Pit Before with lots of weeds
Here’a pic of what our fire pit looked like soon after we created it.
(for step by step instructions of how to create a stone fire pit see it HERE)
My husband is a pretty amazing guy… however, he hates to weed whack. 🙂
Over the years, the grass & weeds had started to invade around the flagstone patio we had laid down around our stone fire pit making it look really sad.
Here’s a pic of what our fire pit looks like today…. pretty sad!
To make our fire pit area a little nicer AND more importantly, to avoid weed whacking it, we decided to replace the weeds & dirt with pea gravel.
Jason, with the help of the boys surprised me with this outdoor DIY project so I do not have any step by step photos to show you guys.
The first thing they did was to level out the dirt around our stone fire pit.
Adding Cobblestone to Keep in the Pea Gravel Fire Pit
They then laid down some landscape fabric & added Belgium block (or cobblestone) around the edges of the gravel patio fire pit.
We brought back the flagstone that was added previously & filled in the gaps with pea gravel.
It ties in so much better with the rest of the stone walkway around our house.
DIY Beam Benches to Add Seating to the Pea Gravel Fire Pit
To add more seating, Jason built 3 long beam benches to go around the pea gravel fire pit.
The smaller wooden beam benches we built a few years ago were just not large enough to accommodate all the people that gather around our fire pit & the feet had started to rot in the dirt.
We used pressure treated beams left over from our wood retaining wall for the feet this time around in hopes that these benches will last a long time!
Our fire pit is pretty now!
It looks SO much nicer next to our sunken patio & arbor.
BTW, I think my garden decided to put on it’s Sunday best for my fire pit this year. 🙂
What a difference a year makes from how this area looked last year.
And, because we were lucky to have all the cobblestone & benches we only needed to purchase the landscape fabric and pea gravel.
The Pea Gravel we Bought
For anyone interested, this is the pea gravel we used from Lowes…
It has only been 2 weeks but we have already taken advantage of our new gravel fire pit with some fires & s’mores.
We are having so much fun DIYing outside again that we just can’t seem to finish this kitchen renovation. 🙂
I hope our pea gravel fire pit inspires you & answers any questions you have for creating one for your backyard.
by Tara Lehman
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I hate to tell you this…but the weeds will grow back up through the weed cloth and the pea gravel. :=( It may take a season or two…but they find a way. BTDT.
Ha, I am sure you are right about the weeds Renne :). I am just thankful that I don’t have to wait on my husband to weed whack our fire pit anymore!
Just found your blog and have been admiring all your landscaping!
Do you have any advice on how to keep weeds out of pea gravel? We made a patio of pea gravel (with landscaping fabric beneath) but oh man the weeds!
Thanks so much for your sweet comments about our landscaping Kristen! I am not going to lie, we still have weeds that pop up in our pea gravel… especially when my teenage boys forget to use our leaf blower after weeding whacking 🙂 My best advice is to use a leaf blower after mowing & weed whacking to blow any weed seeds off of your pea gravel. Using landscape fabric under the pea gravel really helps as well. Because when the weeds do grow, they grow on top of the fabric so their roots are not very deep & are incredibly easy to pull out. Good luck tackling the weeds & congrats on your pea gravel patio!
I love the look of that fire pit. I think maybe we might do something similar to that. Thank you very much for the beautiful idea.
Thank you for your sweet comments & for stopping by to see our gravel firepit Theresa! Good luck creating yours!!!