$30 Outdoor Fire Pit Makeover

So once in a while, I wake up and say: Be Monica! Monica is my older, wiser, crafting-er sister. So last month, it happened! I actually conceived a project and then!...I actually started it. I didn't finish it mind you (we'll save that for 3 years later), but I'm happy with the progress so far. Plus I'm cheap. For 30 bucks here's the makeover taking place in the back.

Here's our outdoor firepit. See it? Way out there hanging in the flowerbeds? I really really need to get a winter cover for it. Because I never did, it was starting to turn a little rusty. For the past 14 months, I couldn't pass it without hearing a voice in my head that said: Cobalt blue.

I'm not even sure what cobalt blue is. But when I went to the store, I bought a special can of rustoleum paint that felt like cobalt blue. To them, it was "True Blue". That was about $6 bucks of my budget.

Rustoleum True Blue and I sprayed just the lid of the firepit. The rust-protection qualities of this paint are compromised if your project reaches over 200 degrees, so we left it on the top.

Next I went to the thrift store and started looking for something I could use to make some seating around the fire. This is the exciting and mind-numbing part of any creative project. Paused in the aisles, looking sideways at junk trying to find its potential, and risk the chance of bringing home more crap that sits as a memorial to good intentions. Fortunately, this run was fun because I found an old homemade clock cut from some funky log already sealed with 10 layers of varnish. Bingo!

$15 bucks for old-school 70's nature clock



We cracked it at the skinny edge to make 2 mini benches.

No nails or screws required! I simply rested the wood on concrete blocks. Five blocks total at $2 bucks each. Two blocks under the bigger bench, one under the smaller bench. The last two were upright as a decorative log holder.



And there we have it. Simple re-purposing with a firehazard of overgrown perennials, but at least an improvement!

$6 spray paint
$10 for 5 cinder blocks
$15 for old school wood clock / bench
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$31 makeover baby!







My ultimate goal for this space?

Clean, weed-free pea gravel so my cobalt blue shines appropriately. On the border? A wind-screen decorative wall. Maybe lattice work, with a suspended BIKE frame, also christened cobalt blue, with red clematis growing through its spokes.

I'll give credit where credit is due.


Inspiration from this book. For the bike part. Anyone got an old school rusty beach cruiser I can take off their hands?


On THIS page.

Now if I was Monica, it would happen July 2010. Maybe I'll get it done by May 2012.