How to Create a Fire Pit Area With Adirondack Chairs

Adirondack chairs create a comfortable, spacious setting around a fire pit, but their wider frames and deeper seating require a little more room than standard patio chairs. A well-planned fire pit area should account for the pit size, chair dimensions, walking space and overall layout. Plan on a 12 to 15 foot circle: enough space for the fire pit, four to six Adirondack chairs and comfortable movement around the area. Here’s how to build a fire pit space that fits Adirondack chairs properly from the ground up.

Preparing the Ground Before You Build

Start by staking out a circle 12 to 15 feet across using a stake, string and a can of marking paint.

• Dig out the grass and topsoil inside the circle about 2 to 3 inches deep
• Lay heavy-duty landscape fabric across the cleared area to keep weeds from working back through
• Set metal or stone edging around the border so the base material stays contained
• Fill the circle with pea gravel, crushed stone or pavers for a stable, fire-safe surface

Grass and mulch hold embers and heat differently than gravel or stone does, so skip building directly on either one, even for a portable fire pit you plan to move around. Once the base is down, keep the pit itself at least 10 feet from your house, garage or fence and check your local fire code, since some areas require more.

How Many Adirondack Chairs Fit Around a Fire Pit

A standard patio chair runs about 24 inches wide. An Adirondack chair, with its wide arms and reclined back, typically measures 30 to 34 inches across and sits lower and deeper to the ground. That difference adds up fast: fit four Adirondack chairs around a pit and you've already used up close to 12 feet of circumference before adding any walking space.

This is the main thing most fire pit layouts get wrong when Adirondack chairs are involved, they plan the circle size around a generic chair and then find the reclined chairs don't fit the way they pictured. Build the 12 to 15 foot circle first and four to six Adirondack chairs will fit with enough room left over for people to move between them. For the exact spacing between seats and the flame and whether a full circle or an open semicircle suits your yard better, we cover that in more detail in arranging seating around a fire pit.

What to Look for in a Chair That Sits This Close to Heat

Not every Adirondack chair belongs next to an open flame. Skip anything with fabric slings or cushions built into the frame and choose solid wood or another material rated for direct outdoor exposure, since fabric close to a fire pit is a fire risk that a wood chair simply doesn't carry. Beyond that, when buying an Adirondack chair, the same checks apply whether it's for the fire pit or anywhere else on the patio: wood species, joinery and hardware.

We've built Adirondack chairs from Northern white cedar since 1975, using traditional mortise and tenon joinery at every joint that takes weight. Cedar resists insects and decay on its own and develops a natural silver-gray patina instead of breaking down the way untreated wood can near heat and weather, so with normal care a chair holds up for 15 to 20 years or more outdoors. Our outdoor chairs is built heavy enough to stay put outdoors but light enough to reposition when the layout needs it.

Adding More Seating Around the Fire

If you're regularly hosting more people than chairs, our wooden bench on one side of the circle adds seating without adding more individual pieces to store and building it at the same back angle as the chairs keeps the layout feeling consistent rather than mismatched. A wooden swing set just outside the seating circle is often where kids end up anyway once the marshmallows come out, giving the space a second, more relaxed spot without crowding the chairs closer to the flame.

At Cedar Creek Rustic Furniture, every chair, bench and swing we make comes from the same Northern white cedar stock and the same joinery standard our workshop in Ingalls, Michigan has used for 50 years, so a fire pit area furnished from our collection wears the same way across every piece, not just the one you bought first.