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Homes

Built-in warmth outside

Many Tampa Bay residents are turning to outdoor fireplaces to heat up their social lives.

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published November 4, 2005

TAMPA - Gary and Debbie Brown dreamed of a front porch that was much more than a front porch. They wanted a natural-looking outdoor room with privacy but enough accessibility so their neighbors could wander up at a whim and join them for a glass of wine.

They also longed for another perk most front porches don't offer: an outdoor fireplace.

"It's a great feature, the hearth of the home," says Gary Brown, a custom builder and owner of Sterling Bay Homes in South Tampa.

Brown was influenced by the architecture of California, where outdoor fireplaces have been prevalent for decades.

"I've toured $1-million plus model homes in San Diego and Rancho Santa Fe and most have some sort of outdoor room and fireplace," he said.

At his own newly built home on Davis Islands, which subtly mirrors the community's original 1920s architecture, Brown built a three-sided outdoor room in the front of the house, just off an entry courtyard.

Smack in the center stands the piece de resistance: a large wood-burning fireplace.

As outdoor fireplaces become increasingly common in the Tampa Bay area, the options - from gas to wood to portable varieties - are flourishing. Our mild subtropical climate allows for casual, outdoor entertaining much of the year.

For the more budget conscious, portable outdoor fireplaces are selling briskly at big box retailers, such as Lowe's.

"The lines between how we furnish and decorate inside and outside of the home are beginning to blur," said Karen Cobb, a spokeswoman for Lowe's Cos. Inc. in Mooresville, N.C.

Cast-iron fireplaces, chimneys and fire bowls are popular in the Tampa Bay area, Cobb said, particularly after the first cold snap hits. Several that Lowe's carries are multifunctional. Many fire pits and fire bowls, which sell for less than $100, also double as tables.

Bob Carnes, owner of United Building Products in Tallahassee, offers a large fountain that features a gas fireplace in the middle. Homeowners looking for back-yard serenity, he says, can listen to the soothing splash of water and watch flames dance at the same time.

Cobb believes the boom in outdoor fireplaces, whether multifunctional or traditional, is rooted in our deep-seated desire to make home a sanctuary, well beyond the back door.

"The moving-indoors-out trend stems from homeowner's desire for comfort. They're searching for calming ways to create the perfect haven at home," Cobb says. "Across the country we're seeing new homes being built with two- or three-sided outdoor rooms designed into the overall plan, complete with fireplaces and ceiling fans, mini kitchens and enough space for comfortable seating and dining."

Many homeowners are opting for built-in gas fireplaces as natural extensions of outdoor rooms and kitchens. Others are swayed by more practical choices, such as round dining or bar-height tables that surround small gas fire pits and can be replaced with lazy Susans in the summer months.

Brown says fireplaces are the perfect visual accompaniment to urban living, particularly for people who live on small lots without water views.

Size doesn't seem to matter; it's the visual warmth people crave.

"Many of our customers are building fireplaces outdoors, and they're building them bigger and bigger," said Todd Peikin, marketing director for Patio Land USA at 1913 Bearss Ave. He notes that many customers opt for gas because "there's no clean up," although some people prefer the smell and sound of real logs.

Patio Land, which features 12,000 square feet of showroom space, dedicates 2,000 square feet to fireplaces. Sales are brisk regardless of the season.

"You'd expect to see the majority of business between October and February, but we're seeing it all year round," Peikin says. "It's primarily two kinds of customers: people with new homes still under construction who come to us just before the outside is finished and people who are re-doing their homes, adding a pool and pavers and say, "Let's build an outdoor kitchen and fireplace."'

The Browns' three-sided room on Davis Islands features an electronic, roll-down screen intended to keep out bugs in the warmer months. Gary and Debbie furnished the room with 1930s Jacobean furniture they picked up at an antique store in St. Petersburg, lending the room the California look they wanted. They dropped a bar sink into the buffet and purchased an attractive, party-size ice tub for chilling bottles of wine for drop-in guests.

Gary Brown made sure to construct the fireplace - a 17- by 18-inch Isokern surrounded on the interior by firebrick - well off the ground, so it could be easily viewed while dining. The fireplace exterior is covered in a durable, faux stone that Brown, who holds a degree in architectural design, first spotted in California.

With the fire blazing, it's the perfect place to watch football games in the fall. And an annual neighborhood progressive Christmas dinner always includes a stop at the Browns' house. Visitors can smell the smoke curling from the chimney the moment they step into the front courtyard.

"This is our entertainment room," Gary Brown says. "It's where we like to live as much as we can fall through spring."

[Last modified November 3, 2005, 08:48:08]