Hearth Hideaway

Edina, MN

Completed 2024

This project transformed a basic builder-grade deck and unlandscaped yard into a beautifully designed outdoor living space. The renovation included elevating the architectural finish of the deck with low-maintenance fascia, trim, and wrapped columns as well as the addition of a pergola for shade and style. A new fireplace was added to create a cozy seating arrangement, adding both privacy and visual interest.

The landscaping was enhanced with a patio and a gas fire pit seating area, perfect for relaxation and gatherings. Additionally, a dining area was incorporated to facilitate hosting and entertaining. To address the yard’s excessive slope, a retaining wall was constructed, leveling the terrain and providing a more functional and aesthetically pleasing outdoor space.

Behind the Design

Design Notes

Before

A builder-grade deck on a crisp new white house, a yard with no landscaping and too much slope, and a wife with a saved folder full of fireplace-and-pergola inspiration photos.

The Idea

When the home’s footprint allowance is already maxed out, put the fireplace on the deck. A white stucco fireplace with a custom arch — matching the arches inside the house — anchors one end under a cedar pergola, turning a plain platform into a room.

After

Azek wraps every column and edge, aluminum rail replaced high-maintenance cedar, and below, sandstone with black limestone inlay meets a short retaining wall that quietly levels the dining terrace. Under the deck: synthetic turf, soft and shaded, claimed immediately by the kids.

The Brief

—Dress up a builder-grade deck into real architecture
—A furniture plan that finally makes sense
—Patio space big enough for dining and a fire pit
—The fireplace and pergola from her inspiration photos
—Low maintenance, minimal plantings, shaded play space below

Materials & Craft

White stucco arched fireplace
Cedar pergola & custom mantel
Azek wraps, fascia & trim
Sandstone patio with black limestone inlay
Synthetic turf play space
Aluminum railing

The fireplace on the deck

With the building footprint maxed, the fireplace moved up onto the deck itself — white stucco with a custom arch echoing the home’s interior arches, cedar mantel warm against the crisp cladding.

Builder-grade, erased

Azek column wraps, fascia, and trim detail run the deck’s perimeter and down the staircase; the cedar handrail gave way to aluminum.

One small wall, two rooms

A short retaining wall levels just the section of yard needed for dining and lounge — a minor elevation change that draws a clear line between open lawn and gathered space.

Water, handled invisibly

A catchment system lives inside the synthetic turf build-up and a small rain garden hides in the tree planting — the city’s mitigation requirement, made into landscape.

The hard part

Zoning twice over: no room left in the building footprint for the fireplace the client most wanted (solved on the deck), and mandatory water mitigation for any new hardscape (solved under the turf and inside a rain garden).

🏆 NARI Minnesota 2024 Remodeler of the Year — Gold · Residential Landscape Design & Outdoor Living