In this third of a three-part series, I’ll describe how I transformed our backyard dining and entertainment area from this…
To this…
This post is dedicated to how I built in outdoor kitchen. Please see my earlier posts about the pavilion and fire pit.
Our home came complete with a bar-height barbeque island covered by a shady pergola. Unfortunately, time and weather were not kind to either one. The builder did not use outdoor deck screws on all the 2×2 shade boards, so they rusted and stained the patio beneath. And the barbeque was literally falling apart with huge cracks between the cinder blocks. Something had to be done.
Overgrown shrubs make way for a new kitchen
The pool equipment lives behind a cinder block wall, which had been covered in vines. It looked nice for a while but became an overgrown nuisance and we needed a space for a new kitchen.
We started by tearing off the vines and ripping out the bushes next to the patio, and hired a contractor to add some patio. Concrete is an art, and it was a real pleasure watching those pros work.
Since concrete countertops are heavy, and wood shouldn’t be used to hold concrete due to swelling that can break it, I built a steel frame to hold it up.
The tricky part here is, we wanted to leave room on the left of the barbeque to put a refrigerator or ice maker, as well as a drawer on the right. This made it very difficult to account for the placement of the posts inside.
I added conduit from the pool equipment’s breaker box and ran two lines to the kitchen: one dedicated for the refrigerator and one above the counter. There’s also a gas line serving the pool heater, which I teed off of to serve the barbeque, which has its own shut-off valve.
I wrapped the metal frame in the same tongue and groove used elsewhere but painted it instead. While the clear urethane is remarkable, I’m not confident it can withstand the daily bombardment of California sun. Paint is much more durable, and I was sure to completely seal every nook and cranny. The countertop uses the same method as the fire pit with cement boards, Z-Form edging, fiberglass mesh and basalt rebar.
And yes, I have a lot of tools.
Since barbeques get hot, I put two large-format porcelain tiles on the wall above it. This will also hide any smoke damage from cooking juicy steaks and burgers that my family and friends will love.
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