Heat and warmth add the ambience to outdoor settings

Outdoor living spaces, quite literally, are warming up.

In what is surely the next step in moving our lives outside, outdoor fireplaces have arrived.

Not only do they offer warmth during our cool spring and fall days, but they also supply the ultimate in atmosphere after the sun goes down in summer.

Take the current Street of Dreams homes.

Four of the five have distinctive outdoor hearths, including La Belle Fleur, a European-style villa with a nearly two-story fireplace set in a large, open courtyard.

Next door, at the Greenleaf Retreat home, the outdoor fireplace, though on a much smaller scale, is no less enchanting with gas-fueled flames dancing in open air over smooth black lava rocks.

"It gives you a warm feeling without the heat," said Ladd Smith, co-owner of In Harmony Sustainable Landscapes in Bothell, which designed the space. "It really makes it inviting."

Homeowners have moved steadily from basic fire pits to more elaborate areas for flames.

"It's an integral part of the landscape and part of the home," Smith said. "You have the barbecue out there. Being able to sit around the fire pit, too, it's almost like camping in the forest."

At The Urban Lodge and Copper Falls homes, builders took a Northwest-practical approach by putting their fireside retreats under cover, allowing homeowners to bask in the glow of the fire - rain, shine or starlight.

Large cozy lounger seats hug a tall, slim fireplace at the Copper Falls home, where the hearth's ambience is small and cozy, the kind of place you might settle with book on a warm - or not so warm - summer night.

At The Urban Lodge home, you'll find outdoor living on a grander scale with a giant stone-faced fireplace, hulking fir beams holding up a vaulted ceiling along with seven skylights that keep the large area surprisingly bright.

It's all about using your space wisely, said Grey Lundberg with Grey Lundberg-CMI Homes, builder of The Urban Lodge, which has one of the smallest backyards on the street.

"You can keep that area really warm," Lundberg said. "I'm getting calls from people asking if we could add that kind of thing to their house."

Reporter Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037 or sjackson@heraldnet.com.