Your backyard or garden may not be as big as this one, housing the Sebios Tendu Garden Fire and Log Storage, but nowadays more and more people are taking advantage of their outdoor space to cook and to hang out – even when it gets a bit chilly. If you want to linger outside, sharing food with friends and family, a garden fireplace and grill means you don’t have to go in as soon as you get cold or hungry. In the modern holy grail of home design, strategic placement of  floor-to-ceiling windows and glass doors have been bringing the outside inside.  Conversely, garden-based fireplaces and barbecues are now taking the inside outside.

Sebios is a Dutch company creating contemporary outdoor fireplaces designed, assembled and manufactured in-house. Their website strapline is ‘elegance, luxury and joy compressed in design.’ The stated aim of Dutch designer Oscar van Buijtene is to spread his personal motto – “live with passion” – through his designer fire collection.

“The enjoyment of a fine meal with good wine in the company of friends and the joy and warmth of family… that is the experience I want to convey to others.” — Oscar van Buijtene

The Sebios fireplace collection is constructed from Corten steel, which weathers to a reddish-brown rust patina – the oxidation layer thus created prevents any further rusting.

It also comes in black. The ‘Tendu’ fireplace offers an optional grill so you can barbecue dinner, while keeping warm in the open air. Symmetrical log storage gives a pleasing, sculptural quality and it’s open on both sides, allowing for free air circulation and prevention of mould. The Tendu log storage module can be ordered separately, as can the wood-burner, or they can be purchased together, as above.
The Sebios ‘Senna’ wood-burning outdoor fire comes with a removable grate, a removable ash pan and a removable lid.

The ‘Pique’ woodburner by Sebios, fashioned in sleek steel



If your outdoor tastes, in food and fire, run to the more rustic, on-the-move variety, this ‘Spare Tire Mount Braai’ steel barbecue grate from Front Runner will definitely fill the bill. It’s simple, stainless steel construction is light, unfussy – no messing about.

Where did it go?


Discreet and portable, it stores over your spare tire! The three steel legs latch onto the tire, and it looks pretty sharp. For around $100, it can also double up as an outdoor table.

OK so you’ve finished with your barbie – now you just need to tackle the messy grill. Either roll up your sleeves and get out the elbow grease (though isn’t it greasy enough already?) or just invest in one of these. Billed as “the world’s first automatic grill cleaning robot,” the Grillbot will do just that at the push of a button.  I suppose you need to decide – what’s easier to clean? The grill or the grillbot? Well, it has removable brushes that can be cleaned in a dishwasher. So, if you like kitchen (and garden) labor-saving gadgets, you may just love it.

Save