Thinking of ways to enhance your backyard? Then build an outdoor kitchen! It will encourage you to get outdoors more and there’s every chance that it will also increase the value of your home!
OK, this is not an over-the-weekend project… it’s going to take a couple of hard weekends to complete. But we’re sure it will be worth the effort.
Instead of hiring a contractor to build this outdoor kitchen, doing it yourself can save you a lot on costs. Aside from not having to spend on labor, you can look for used/reclaimed building materials for more savings! For example, the doors in this project are made from used pallets. Drainage consists of a barrel that they also got for free!
Now how about putting your building skills to serious practice for the next couple of weekends? :)
Materials:
- Concrete Mix
- Coarse Gravel
- Mortar
- Stucco Mix
- Bricks
- 2×4 Molds
- 4×4 Wood – roofing
- 2×6 Wood – roofing
- 2×2 Wood – roofing
- Cement Epoxy
- Rebar
- Barrel
- Drain Pipes
- Tiles
- Tile Glue
- Pallet
- Hinges
- Door/Drawer Handles
- Switches
- Stain
- Sink
- Bolts/Screws
Tools:
- Shovel
- Cement Mixer
- Carpenter’s Level
- Drill
- Trowel
- Tile Cutter
- Paint Brush
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Steps:
Dig and level the patch of ground that the barbecue will sit on. before pouring the concrete make sure that all your water, power, and gas lines are laid, because it will be hard to get them in thereafter it is poured. Run all connections through the foundation and cap them. Ours was 3’x11′. create a form to pour the concrete in from 2×4’s.
Mix the concrete according to the directions on the package. Pour into the mold. 
Level and smooth the concrete with another 2×4. It would be easiest to rent/borrow a cement mixer because we will be mixing a lot of them. 
The first thing to do is to use some cement epoxy to embed the rebar securely into the concrete foundation. drill the hole and epoxy it in. 
Next, create a dry well for the drain water to go. If you can just connect the drain for the sink to a house drain pipe, this isn’t necessary. 
Dig a deep hole that is a bit larger than the barrel that you have. Drill many holes into the barrel, and put the drain pipes through the lid. The bottom of the barrel isn’t necessary. Put the barrel into the hole and fill around it with coarse gravel.
Mix up the mortar/mud and lay the first layer of bricks. They should be as close to perfectly level as possible. 
Fill around the drain pipes with cement. The barrel and drain pipes will be buried, since the area behind the barbecue will be back-filled with dirt. 
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