Outdoor Kitchen
PROJECT #2210
Skill Level:
Intermediate
Time: 5 Days
Cost: $800
If you live in the Midwest, you’ll know that we’re a get-together type of people. I’m sure that’s a true statement across the US. And while the current situation has put a bit of a damper on this summertime tradition, I hope that things will eventually return to normal. So, in anticipation for the next summertime cookout, I wanted to build an outdoor kitchen to house my kamado-style grill and pizza oven. The results are seen here.
Now, I have to admit something. This outdoor kitchen actually started as a much smaller grill cart, with the intention of it being on wheels. Then, it evolved into a grill island. Finally, it graduated into a grill continent. As I started measuring and laying out everything, I quickly realized that the outdoor kitchen would be rather large, and not everyone would want an outdoor kitchen this large. So, that led to designing this piece to be fairly modular. Even though this kitchen ends up being nearly 7 feet long, it’s easy to trim it down and customize it to what you need — more on that in a bit.
Before we step into the shop and walk through the construction, the final thing I want to touch on is the material I’ve used. Originally, I planned on building this out of iroko to match my picnic table. However, working with the dense African hardwood comes with some challenges and would be a pretty pricey endeavor. Instead, I opted to build this from construction-grade cedar. A combination of 4x4s, 2x4s, 2x6s, and cedar fence pickets are readily available at nearly every big box store. However, any weather-resistant wood would work—iroko, teak, white oak, cedar, redwood, and cypress would all be great options. After finishing this kitchen, however, I think cedar was the right call for my application.
And finally, I want to note that this cart is designed for a kamado-style grill. These grills are ceramic and
