Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

Want to wow guests who stay for the evening? A fire pit is nice, but a fire pillar would be even more memorable.

This “Indoor Outdoor Fire Pillar” from Sharper Image “combines the drama of a medieval torch and the warm ambiance of an indoor fireplace in a sleek modern design.”

It’s made from carbon steel and tempered glass to showcase flames that can light up your patio or deck at night. (It can be used indoors, too, though that might make for a strange look in the living room!).

Available in chrome, black or white, the fire pillar can burn for up to 2.5 hours before needing refueling. Every pillar comes with a lighter, snuffer and a quart of fuel to give you a head start on the indoor fireplace atmosphere.

$280

If you’re getting tired of the summer heat, but you’d still like to spend some time outside, you could add an outdoor fan to your deck or patio.

The Lasko 50″ Outdoor Fan looks more like an architectural element than some random noise-maker stuck in the middle of the area, and it includes a light as well, so you can find a use for it year round.

It has three speed settings, and the blowing air is supposed to keep mosquitoes out of the area. There’s a cover (additional) you can get for it if you want to keep it outdoors when the weather gets bad.

$275 at Amazon: Lasko Outdoor Fan

We’ve seen a lot of furniture and household items made from reclaimed wine barrels. For example…

• Hardwood flooring from old wine barrels
• Kitchen island made from old barrel staves
• Wall-mounted mini bar

Now, you can even lounge on reclaimed staves in the backyard. This hammock actually looks fairly comfortable, with the wood curving around your body.

“One of the best barrel reinventions we’ve seen, this comfortable hammock utilizes the natural curve of the staves to cradle your body. The pieces are smoothed and sanded for blissful afternoon napping, and lacquer-sealed for outdoor protection. One whole California wine barrel supplies approximately 22 staves, which are spaced and joined with thick manila rope.”

Pick the hammock up for $500 from NapaStyle.

Some people like outdoor seating that looks a lot like their indoor seating…except waterproof. That’s fine, but others enjoy pieces that hint of nature and the great outdoors (well, the backyard anyway).

These leaf benches from Deesawat have a light and airy feel that’s perfect for the yard.

“Thailand’s wood company specialising in outdoor teak furniture, doors, flooring and custom work, is also going in a greener direction as more and more customers (Deesawat mainly exports to the US, Europe and Asia) are encouraging it to be more eco-friendly. Deesawat’s marketing manager Jirachai Tangkijngamwong admitted they have yet to achieve their green goals and still struggle to balance quality and ecology.

Currently, the teak used in their furniture designs is imported from Burma. The company eventually aims to use teak from Thailand’s contracted teak farm, which to date remains too young for their purpose.

Trying its best to be eco-friendly, Deesawat recycles scrap wood, reusing it to make models. ”

The company also offers creative deck tiles, doors, dividers, furniture, and wood-based products for the home.

There are lots of choices when it comes to functional charcoal grills out there, but if you’re someone who likes unique furnishings, you might get a kick out of this barbecue unit from the German-based company, Fire and Steel.

The Scorpio grill features a 5-position adjustable pulley with a chain that’s used to regulate the distance between the grilling surface and the burning charcoal. Also, the whole setup looks pretty cool!

The company has several versions of the designer grill, all with the pulley system. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like you can get it outside of Germany right now, but maybe in the future.

Prices run from € 1.399 to € 3.499.

Looking for an outdoor furniture set that will stand up well to the sun and rain while looking good as well?

You might check into this Outdoor Patio Cantina Egg Conversation Set.

Egg, you ask?

“The five-piece set includes four chairs and a matching round conversation table. For storage, the smaller chairs stack into the larger ones, fitting together to form egg-shaped units.” That makes the seating set easy to store at the end of the summer.

The furniture set is made from “an ultra durable” woven rattan PE that “looks great and stands up to the elements.”

You can order it online for $2,500.

If you’ve been dreaming of an outdoor kitchen, but you haven’t wanted to hire an expensive professional to custom design one, you might look into the Wwoo system.

The basic Wwoo comes with five posts, twelve wall elements, eight loose kitchen worktops, and four shelves. The system is made from concrete for stability and durability, and it’s designed so you can lay it out any way you wish and add to it later. Each section is 1.5 meters wide and approximately 2 meters high, but you can also get versions that are 1.4 meters high so that you can see over the top. Other customizations are available as well.

You need to cook in your outdoor kitchen, too, so the basic version comes with a Big Green Egg or Weber barbecue as well as a removable stainless steel hearth and a stainless steel basin with tap.

Prices run $500-$1,750.

Wwoo

Everyone loves grilling outside in the summer, by why limit yourself to steaks and chicken? With a pizza oven, you can add variety to your backyard meals, and the kids will love helping you cook!

This stainless steel “Artisan Fire Pizza Oven” from Kalamazoo is as sleek as it gets. At $6,495, it’s definitely a luxury backyard purchase, but if it’s in the budget you’ll be making pizzas to rival anything you can get at the local pizzeria.

“Our second generation design delivers great pizzas and an interactive cooking experience with an open front and exposed flame. Engineered for high performance, the oven is ready for use in as little as 20 minutes and bakes a Neapolitan-style pizza in less than 3 minutes.

The Artisan Fire Pizza Oven is the first countertop design to utilize dual burners with individual controls. You can tailor the heat to your liking for a variety of pizza styles, including New York, Chicago and Neopolitan-style pizzas. It also makes perfect calzones in about 5 minutes.”

Mmm, calzones. I’m getting hungry just blogging about it!

We’ve looked at lots of furnishings and household items made from reclaimed wine or whiskey barrels (a wine barrel kitchen island, whiskey barrels transformed into garden planters, and even wood flooring made from old barrels), but never a backyard grill.

The Thousand Oaks Barrel Company offers this “one of a kind Bar-B-Q Pit made from a REAL whiskey barrel.” Don’t worry: it features a metal interior to keep the barrel from burning.

The $950 grill is fully functional, but, more, it’ll be a great conversation starter when you’re entertaining friends and family.

And, if you just can’t have enough barrels on the patio, consider the company’s whiskey barrel ice chest as a matching accessory.

Weber has been putting out grills for ages, but now they’ve decided to move into outdoor fireplaces. Using much of the same technology that gives their barbecues a long life, Weber is offering a portable wood-burning fireplace that’s easy to use, easy to put out, and even has a lid to protect it in case it starts to sprinkle.

“Create atmosphere anywhere. Now it is easy to have the warmth and atmosphere of an outdoor wood burning fireplace or campfire. Use the Weber Fireplace camping, on a patio or in the garden – anywhere you want to enjoy the fun of a fire without leaving a trace of it. Bring warmth to cool nights and an inviting glow to any occasion. Made of heavy-gauge steel construction, the lid and bowl are porcelain enameled, that won’t rust, fade or burn. The heat shield is made of rust-resistant aluminum, and the support ring is galvanized steel.”

I like the fact that the you can extinguish the fire easily by removing the support ring and dropping the lid right over the burning logs. Beats sitting around waiting for the flames to die down on their own at the end of the night!

Under $150 at Amazon: Weber Wood Burning Fireplace