Fire & Light

Fire features, low light and covered rooms — the Arizona backyard after the sun drops.

A note on evenings

Arizona evenings are the reason to build outside. In January the light goes early and the temperature drops fast, which means the yard needs its own warmth and its own light — planned together, not added later.

This issue is the nighttime yard: the lighting plan, the fire placement, and the small decisions that decide whether the space gets used at nine o'clock.

Fire, Light and the Long Arizona Eveningp. 01
One Switch by the Doorp. 02
Warmth Without a Windbreakp. 03

Outdoor living · 6 min read

Fire, Light and the Long Arizona Evening

How to light a yard so it feels like a room at nine o'clock — without a single glare in your eyeline.

Light low and cross the space. Path lights at knee height, a wash on the pergola beam, and nothing above eye level facing the seating area. The goal is to light what you walk on and what you look at, and leave the rest dark.

Fire belongs where people already sit. A fire pit centered on a conversation area with a hard, level surround and a gas line beats a decorative feature nobody stands near. If there is a covered structure, put the fire at the edge of the roof line so the heat is not trapped.

Fire, Light and the Long Arizona Evening

The Hardworkers · January 2026

Craft · 4 min read

One Switch by the Door

Why a yard that takes three separate decisions to light up will not get used.

We group the lighting into two or three scenes on a single keypad by the door: dinner, fire, off. A dimmer on the main wash is the single most useful upgrade in a backyard.

All of it runs from a transformer sized with room for expansion, and every fixture is serviceable without digging up the bed.

The Hardworkers · January 2026

Design · 5 min read

Warmth Without a Windbreak

Heaters, walls and fire — three ways to hold heat in an open yard.

Radiant heaters under a roof warm people, not air, and cost a fraction of running a patio heater. Where there is no roof, a wall on the windward side does more than any heater.

We plan the winter seating in the corner the house already protects, then add the fire and the overhead heat to that corner rather than spreading fixtures across the yard.

The Hardworkers · January 2026

Project spotlight

Pergola, Fire Pit & Night Lighting

“We use the yard more in January than we did in June.”

Where: Chandler, Arizona
Scope: Cantilever pergola, gas fire pit, landscape lighting
Timeline: 6 weeks
Materials: Stacked stone, travertine caps, low-voltage LED, dimmer keypad

Departments

Notes from the crew

Field notes

Light the path, not the sky

Uplighting a tree from the base is striking the first week and annoying the third. We graze walls and light the walk; the drama follows.

Ask the builder

Wood or gas fire pit?

Gas, in almost every case. It lights in one attempt, has no ash to clean, and is permitted within distance of a covered structure in ways wood is not.

Earlier issueEvenings Outside Later issueWater in Motion

Request a quote Call (559) 355-6577

The monthly issue

Get The Hardworkers Magazine by email, every month.

One issue on the first of every month — the cover story, the project spotlight and the material notes, written from our own job sites around the Valley. Free, and you can stop any time.