my chiminea came with the house. it was a rusted cast iron that comes in 2 pieces (3 if you count the lid). there was the bottom belly pot, and the smoke stack. both were extremely heavy and extremely rusted, but being that it's cast iron, i just took a wire brush to it all, washed the dust, and sprayed it with black high-heat paint (black). it looks BRAND NEW now.

enough patting my own back. the PROBLEM with a chiminea on my deck is that the heat sucks out the stain of the wood post directly behind it. so the post behind the hottest part of the chiminea weeps resin/stain/sap or whatever. now i have a really gross looking stain on that one post.

to hide that, and to try to stop that from happening again, i bought a scrap piece of pressure treated wood, painted it black too, and bolted it to that stained post, so that in subsequent uses of my chiminea the heat is blocked by the scrap wood. looks a little out of place, but i'd rather not dry out the original post and have it go up in flames one night.

chimineas are great, i think, you get the camp fire smell, the warmth, and family time around the fire, and you get to say 'chiminea' to anyone who will listen.

chiminea.