Assembling our Von Haus Copper Rim Fire Pit

* This item was gifted by Von Haus UK

When this fire pit arrived earlier in May the weather wasn’t so good, and it wasn’t looking as if there’d be any improvement to it any time soon, so it was looking like that a fire pit could be a good addition to our garden for the “summer” ahead. In truth, I’m still convinced about the heatwave that the forecasters are continuing to predict, and I’ve a feeling (which I’m happy to be wrong about) that the summer ahead of us may not live up to summers of recent memories.

But there’s something magical about spending more time outside, equally after a hard days gardening or a hard day relaxing. It’s even better when you don’t have to wrap up like it’s the middle of winter too, or huddle under blankets. And that’s where I hope this fire pit will come into its own, especially if the weather doesn’t deliver - I’ve already got some marshmallows at the ready for toasting, but first we needed to put it together.

On the Von Haus website, it says that “simple assembly” is needed, and that usually worries me. As usually it’s not that simple. So with a jobs that needed jobbing well underway, this was the perfect job to end the weekend. I’d hoped to put those marshmallows to the test, but in the end that wasn’t to be.

Was it easy - and simple - to put together?

Quite simply, yes it was. It needs two people for part of it as it’s quite a large fire pit at just under a metre in diameter and it’s not easy for one short person to hold the rim up on both sides and attach the leg. And he needed supervising to ensure the legs didn’t go on the wrong way round.

But he is methodical, and with the pieces laid out and checked against what we should have (which is always worth doing to avoid a potential headache later on) and the instructions briefly perused we were good to go. The instructions were the visual sort, which remove the need for lots of words and multiple translations, which are both good and bad. Good that it removes the need for over complicated and lengthy instructions, there’s nothing more off putting than a thick instruction booklet is there? But not so good, because I’m one of those people that struggle with the visual instructions, I’m the person that couldn’t do the picture crosswords as a child, because I had no idea what the picture was much of the time.

We assembled the rim and the legs first, and set that aside in an upturned kind of beetle way while we attached the brackets for the grill. That’s easily doable by one person, and very little supervision is needed at this point.

The trickiest bit, but still not hard, was attaching the legs complete with rim to the actual fire pit. It’s not heavy, I’d call it sturdy rather than heavy, but it’s wide. The copper rim is decorative - and looks great - but I suspect is also functional in that you can’t get close to the sides, and so prevents an unwanted singe.

As well as the grill, it also comes with a protective mesh spark guard and a heat resistant poker, all shown in the picture below. From start to finish once we’d started to assemble the fire pit, I’d say it took us just over quarter of an hour, which is much less time than we’d anticipated.

So yes, I’d agree that the assembly was simple. Now all I need is some time to be able to enjoy some evenings watching the embers die down.

* This firepit was gifted by Von Haus UK to review here on my blog, as usual all views and opinions shared here and in my future posts are and will be my own.

Flowers on Friday returns with a quote

It’s been a little while since I’ve shared a ‘Flowers on Friday’ post and so to kick off this series again, I’m sharing another mirror quote from the loos in The Sipping Room. Despite what you might think, it’s Monet not Elton John. But it’s a great sentiment, isn’t it?

Sometimes quotes just speak to you don’t they?

Proper, actual flowers in the next Flowers on Friday post, I promise.

But which quotes speak to you?

The Upcycled Garden

This is the last of the garden room sets from this year’s Ideal Home Show, and I’ve saved my favourite until last. And in true me-style, I had quite a good chat with Max McMurdo who was hanging around the garden he created trying to eat his lunch and have a conversation with someone who thought he looked familiar, but thought nothing more of it. Until I actually read the leaflet I picked up and realised who I’d been chatting to over the upcycled pallet.

It is a particularly good use of pallets, and one I wished I’d thought of when in my first house dad and I put up a front fence made of pallets. Just adding an extra plank to keep those pots in, would have added some interest. I was clearly way ahead of my time, although looking back I think I’d have had to nail the pots in as a plant that was on my open porch, which took two people to lift disappeared one day. It’s not actually the sort of thing you can phone the police for is it?

“Yes, hello Officer, yes my five foot money plant, that’s extremely heavy is missing.”

“Where did I leave it? Well on my doorstep, it’s too heavy to move you see.”

But anyway I digress, although that is how and when I got my yucca plant, which is still going strong despite a small accident with MOH falling onto it recently. These doors too reminded me of the “shed-that-dad-built” which I shared on here a couple of years ago. That post is worth a look for the old-fashioned photos alone.

Back to my chat with Max. It was the real Max I got to speak to, not the statuesque one that perched on yet another pallet. Max is a designer and upcycler and has gone “back to his roots” according to the leaflet with this Land Rover inspired garden, reusing ideas from his book “Upcycling Outdoors”. The leaflet goes on to say that upcycling items has “previously been associated with items within the home” but that this garden shows what you can do with your outside space. I’d just like to say, pop back to the post with the “shed-that-dad-built” there was much upcycling going on there, mostly through quirkiness and need, rather than driven by a reuse mantra, but it was the early nineties…

It’s true though that suitcase side tables are more often used indoors, but they do make a lovely planter too.

That old tool trolley isn’t what it seems either - it’s a barbeque of course. And while storage is always important everywhere, so is having a functional and attractive dining area. Some planks laid across a wooden frame have easily sorted that - that’s definitely something to remember and reuse at some point.

You didn’t believe me when I said it was a barbeque did you? Here you go…

It was definitely my favourite garden, and while the planting is quite subtle, it’s there thought, and as we know all good gardens are based on a good structure.

What do you think? For me, there’s memories, inspiration and so many things to see in each and every one of these photos. I’m only sorry there wasn’t more time to enjoy the space and take full advantage of the hospitality laid on!