Many people enjoy spending large amounts of time outdoors on their deck or patio. Depending on their geographical location, for some it may literally be a year-round leisure activity. Patios can be a great place to relax alone or with family, to cook and eat, and to entertain friends in small or larger groups. One element of a great relaxing patio environment is its furnishings, which can range from the ordinary to the downright unusual.
A very standard piece of patio furnishing is an outdoor grill or cooking area of some variety. The ordinary ones include standard charcoal and gas barbecue grills, but there are unique grill types that can stagger the imagination. A dugout pit for roasting entire pigs can be located just off the edge of a patio, and a rotisserie spit for cooking meat and vegetable can exist on the patio itself. In the case of my own deck, a standard charcoal grill serves the purpose of cooking outdoors – while a more elaborate and unusual grilling option would be fun and exciting, for safety reasons the grill is it for now.
Firepits are a real crowd-pleaser for entertaining or relaxing on patios. In a lot of cases, you can buy elaborate patio firepits at nearby furniture stores or you can build your own. In the case of my own residence there can be no safe firepit on the deck, for the simple reason that it’s constructed of wood. While it would be fun to sit around a campfire next to the barbecue grill, ours is located down below on a solid cement slab, constructed of landscape stones, sand and a metal wood grate. The deck is our true patio, but the firepit is elsewhere.
Many people enjoy having fountains or waterfalls, even fishponds, built into their patios. These can be very relaxing and soothing, enjoyable to spend time around, but my patio has no such feature. A patio may also be built around a swimming pool or spa; mine has no such feature, as fun as that would be.
Outdoor living is a big part of recreational time in America, and patios and decks are often the focal point of that time with friends and family. Each and every patio can be a reflection of an individual’s personal taste, with various features included or omitted. In our house we are always on the lookout for new ways to accessorize and improve our deck – some features are affordable and safe to implement, others are not.
