Mill Valley Firebowl

Design around a central feature.

This project in Mill Valley features an antique Indonesian Cane Bowl, originally used in Southeast Asia to reduce sugar cane in sugar production. These bowls are made of cast iron and can be used for wood burning and can be retrofitted with a gas line, as shown above. The bench was built using brick surfacing with a stucco face, and recessed lighting.

This Mill Valley property originally had a brick patio just off the back of the house, which then dropped 13 inches to the rest of the yard, which also had drainage issues caused by water pooling in the low lying area. To resolve the drainage issues we raised the lower area to the same height as the patio by filling it with gravel. We then joined the 2 areas with 2 patio designs for contrast, one with grass between each flagstone, and one with gravel between each flagstone.

This patio uses a pre-cut flagstone from India that looks like Arizona flagstone, but with higher density which makes them less prone to water absorption, cracking and mildew.