Any good designs for firepits with the intended use of meal prepping?

[Lookstothestars]

I'm bad at formulating, so forgive me if what I say is barely comprehensable. I love making my builds historically accurate in Vintage Story and though obviously, history encompases many different facetes of design and architecture, I do not always want to build the same structure. So, while planing my next build I started looking at pictures of medievall fireplaces on the Internet. What I found were a great many pictures that had firewood stored bellow the firepits. On a different note, I have also seen many images of medieval ovens that looked structurally similar with the only difference being that the wooden storage bellow works as the place where the firepit goes to heat up the plate above it, like a stone oven for Pizza. 

Now, I could just go and build exactly that ... except I can't. Vintage Stories chisel mechanics are really cool but also not that complex. What I mean is, that I followed the idea of putting a firepit above wooden storage, like in the reference picture attached, buuut that simply doesn't work, because either you have a full or chiseled stone block on the bottom to place a firepit in the first place but that prohibits you from storing wood there, since even when you hollow it out completely, you simply can't put wood into an occupied block, or you put wood there but now you can't place the firepit above it because the wood takes up the room of a solid surface. What is possible is replacing the firepit with a clay oven. I do want to say that I hope we get more historically accurate ovens in the future where you can essentially place a firepit bellow a chisseled stone surface, which heats it up working as an oven (obviously it needs to be a bit more complex than that, but that's not the point right now.)

Now, I already "complained" a lot now, but that's not why I'm here. I understand the complexity of game design but I do want my buildings to look nice too, so that's why I created this discussion. I want to see some designs of places of meal making from other players that put a chisel into their hands and started designing. I'll start by adding my designs too. Maybe if someone has a good mod to recommend to circumnavigate my problems, they could mention that too? I'm excited to hopefully see some interesting designs. :3

[LadyWYT]

2 hours ago, Lookstothestars said:

Now, I could just go and build exactly that ... except I can't. Vintage Stories chisel mechanics are really cool but also not that complex. What I mean is, that I followed the idea of putting a firepit above wooden storage, like in the reference picture attached, buuut that simply doesn't work, because either you have a full or chiseled stone block on the bottom to place a firepit in the first place but that prohibits you from storing wood there, since even when you hollow it out completely, you simply can't put wood into an occupied block, or you put wood there but now you can't place the firepit above it because the wood takes up the room of a solid surface. What is possible is replacing the firepit with a clay oven. I do want to say that I hope we get more historically accurate ovens in the future where you can essentially place a firepit bellow a chisseled stone surface, which heats it up working as an oven (obviously it needs to be a bit more complex than that, but that's not the point right now.)

What I like to do is put my clay oven a block above the ground, and then either store a pile of firewood underneath it, or build a cooking fire underneath. Not only is a convenient use of space, but it also looks rather nice and somewhat realistic. From there, I add a table proper for pie forming, shelves for crocks and things, and then chisel counters and other furniture to round out the decor.

[James Rich]

My current kitchen. I use expanded foods and the food shelves mod.

[Myo]

Im using qp's chisel tools to let me use a chiseled blocks as a firepit. 

[Lookstothestars]

On 9/23/2025 at 8:47 PM, LadyWYT said:

What I like to do is put my clay oven a block above the ground, and then either store a pile of firewood underneath it, or build a cooking fire underneath. Not only is a convenient use of space, but it also looks rather nice and somewhat realistic. From there, I add a table proper for pie forming, shelves for crocks and things, and then chisel counters and other furniture to round out the decor.

I don't know how I didn't come up with the idea of simply putting a firepit bellow the oven and having the firewood storage somewhere else, but that is a great Idea. It's multi-functional, good looking and in a way even historically accurate! Probably simple to make in early game with just a copper chisel too! Thank you for the idea.

Edited September 25, 2025 by Lookstothestars

[Lookstothestars]

On 9/24/2025 at 3:27 PM, Myo said:

Im using qp's chisel tools to let me use a chiseled blocks as a firepit. 

Interesting. I'll have to look what you can do with qp's chisel mod. But being able to use a chiseled block like if it were a firepit is really cool! :3

Edited September 25, 2025 by Lookstothestars

[Narg]

On 9/23/2025 at 9:27 AM, Lookstothestars said:

I do want to say that I hope we get more historically accurate ovens in the future where you can essentially place a firepit bellow a chisseled stone surface, which heats it up working as an oven (obviously it needs to be a bit more complex than that, but that's not the point right now.)

 Maybe if someone has a good mod to recommend to circumnavigate my problems, they could mention that too? I'm excited to hopefully see some interesting designs. :3

Not the entire premise, but I have recently loved using Firepits Heat ovens 

here's my setup with that mod: