DIY BBQ Island an End of Summer Project

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Hey friend!

As you may or may not know Ed got a new job almost 3 months ago. He working longer hours farther from home, which has been an adjustment for us both. Knowing that he’s working his booty off I encouraged him to buy something or spend some of that hard earned money on something he wanted. If you know him at all you’d know it would more than likely be something either food or car related 😉 & this time it was food. He bought a new BBQ grill, a Primo grill which he talked about often.

So he brings this grill home & of course me being me sees it as a design opportunity for a fun project…an outdoor diy BBQ island 😀 You see he already had a pretty awesome grill (yes now we have 2) so I thought aesthetically it would look better & functionally make more sense to create one grilling workspace. And I knew right where I wanted it to go! See pic below!

The Plan, the Process & Lots of Pictures

We planned out the general, structural build of it first. I decided I wanted to do a shiplap inspired design & also to use it to it as an opportunity to try our hand at making a diy concrete counter top. We were able to use some of the wood from our old deck that Ed removed a couple months ago. As always we try to be thrifty & use what we have when we can.

Since I figured that anyone who is wanting to build their own BBQ island or outdoor kitchen will have to figure out their own specific plans based on their space/needs/wants etc. I tried to take a ton of pictures of ours & the process of building it to be used as a reference & maybe some inspiration 🙂

Progress but then we got hungry 😉

DIY Concrete Countertop

Below are some shots of how he made the mold for the concrete countertop out of melamine board. He made it 1 inch thick & let it set up for 1 week before we put it in place.

Progress but couldn’t wait to cook 😉

Painting it White 

We used the paint sprayer & some left over exterior paint from our house to paint it white. I lived with it for a week just to be sure but in the end it was too much white. So I redid the top boards & added a door on the front of the storage area in front.

Final Results 

Here’s what it looks like today. I LOVE how the countertop turned out! We really wanted that rustic, industrial unfinished look. And as for the rest of it I feel like you can’t go wrong with the black, white, wood combo 😉

    

  

Aside from the design, this was a project that Ed tackled all on his own while I was busy with other ones. He did an EXCELLENT job! It turned out even better than I had hoped for! 🙂

I love the fact that the island helps create the feel of an outdoor room that is an extension of our home. It adds purpose & function to a space that was once awkward. Even though it’s the end of summer I have a feeling we’ll be out here enjoying this area as much as possible for as long as possible in the coming months. Plus we have another project in the works that’ll make the backyard even more inviting this fall & winter 😉

Stay tuned!

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