It’s a backyard heat wave
Ernest Batchelder, whose early 20th century mantel tiles are considered historic masterpieces, once said “a fireplace is not a luxury; it is a necessity -- because it adds to the joy and beauty of living.”
Perhaps that is most true during the holidays, when the fireplace serves as a central gathering spot. “It comes back to the primitive idea of what makes a home,” said Amy Murphy, a USC architecture professor. “We think of the house as a place of the hearth. A fireplace gives a space a hierarchy, a center where everyone can gather around.”
And it doesn’t have to be indoors.
Taking advantage of California’s long summers and mild winters, some homeowners have turned parts of their backyards into alfresco extensions of their living rooms, using a fireplace as an anchor.
It was a trend that started here in the early 20th century, triggered by some of Los Angeles’ modernist architects who wanted to blur the lines between indoor and outdoor living spaces.
Oil heiress and arts patron Aline Barnsdall, for whom Frank Lloyd Wright designed the remarkable Hollyhock House -- his first Los Angeles project -- on Hollywood Boulevard, believed that a true California house should be “as much outside as inside.” That’s exactly what Wright gave her, creating an exterior space equivalent to each major interior space.
Architect Rudolph M. Schindler embraced that idea when he built his house at Kings Road in West Hollywood, designing it around a courtyard. Big sliding doors on a series of courtyard rooms make house and garden seem as if they were part of the same space. The rooms make sense, Murphy said, because there is a fireplace in each one of them.
Although fireplaces are still an important part of a home’s interior, she said, some architects these days are reluctant to make them the centerpiece of a room. “Anyone who has ever designed a living room has found that it is impossible to reconcile the competition between the television and the fireplace,” Murphy said.
But no such competition exists outside.
“I dream of having an outdoor fireplace,” said Murphy, who also runs her own architecture firm. “When a fire is lit at night in an outdoor space, it is as if the darkness becomes the other walls of the room. There is a dialogue between the fire and the black night.”
Screenwriter Molly Newman and her husband, Playa Vista development executive Thomas A. Jones, had long admired the loggias and verandas -- all with fireplaces -- at the resort hotels they visited during trips to Cabo San Lucas. “We fell in love with the architectural style -- the stucco, Cubist-shaped walls,” Newman said. “We loved the idea of being outside at night, with candlelight and firelight. Maybe it’s something primal.”
With pictures in hand, they returned home and hired landscape architect Bob Edminston last year to help them create a similar space at their Spanish-style house deep inside Laurel Canyon. They began their $30,000 renovation by putting in a court in front.
Next, they opened up the back of the house with a series of French doors. A courtyard, paved in terra-cotta tile, replaced a rambling English rose garden. “The garden was quite beautiful, but it was an incredible amount of work,” said Newman. “I have a penchant for bringing home stray dogs and cats. It was just impossible.”
A large, white, outdoor fireplace, accented with luminous turquoise tiles, is the focal point of a grand sitting area filled with teak chairs and a mosaic table. Nearby is a dining area, shaded by a vine-covered arbor and illuminated at night by a candle chandelier. An alfresco salon with a large, tiled wall fountain is situated in a far corner.
The space, cradled by palm trees, bougainvillea and fragrant star jasmine, has become a popular gathering place for friends. “Before, when we had parties, the kitchen used to be the center of everything,” Newman said. “Now, we hand people a drink and off they go to congregate by the fire. There’s just something about having a fire outdoors. Maybe it’s a campfire thing. It’s very hypnotic and warming. I’ve found that guests stay at least an hour longer than they used to.”
When Steve Ho bought his Spanish-style house in the South Carthay district in 1984, he was intrigued by the fact that a previous owner had built a gas fireplace in a patio off the family room. Recently, he decided to make more of the space by installing an outdoor kitchen. With the help of interior designer Sandy Koepke, Ho painted the walls hot pink. “I just wanted something a little out-of-the-ordinary,” Ho said of the space.
On cool evenings, he simply flips a switch to turn on the gas fireplace. His friends often ask him if he spends a lot of time in his open-air kitchen. “I always tell them, ‘As much as possible.’ ”
Diana and Scott Ford are also constantly drawn outside their Spanish-style house in Altadena, where they spend their evenings in front of a fireplace built under an oak tree. They bought the house several years ago from an artist who dedicated nearly a decade of her life to transforming a sprawling yard into a series of outdoor “rooms.”
“Some nights I would pull my mattress out and sleep out here under the stars,” said the previous owner, Nancy Thomas. “It’s wonderful.” Before she moved, Thomas painted a quote from Henry David Thoreau on an outdoor mantel. The inscription says, simply: “A taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out-of-doors.”
