An Outdoor Grilling Station

Last week we tested out the BBQ grill and it did great.  One thing I've always struggled with while grilling is having adequate space to set things as well as a place to put stuff while entertaining.  Our yard and deck are rather small so our spaces need to be well used and everything we own needs to be scaled to fit.  I came up with a solution that works well for us and didn't bust our budget, which also tends to run on the rather small side these days too.

We've hit the FREE WOOD bin a few times this month to collect lumber for a summer project we hope to get started on after school is out.  In the process we ended up with some extra wood I thought would be perfect to construct a grilling station.  I've always wanted an outdoor kitchen, but with time constraints and no budget for such a thing I felt a little grilling station would be a nice compromise.  So we set to work and built one.

The wood from this pallet was really good quality

The wood to build the frame and bottom shelf is all from that long narrow pallet we dragged home.  Even the OSB I made the top out of was part of that pallet.  It had 1"X4" sides that I carefully removed and was able to reuse to make the bottom shelf along with a length of 1"X4" I had in the garage.  The 2"X4"s from the pallet were used to build the frame along with a 2"X2" I had leftover in the garage from our gate project.

I had plenty of extra floor tile in my garage to use for the top and loads of trim too that I've acquired from the FREE WOOD bin over the years.  Screws, nails, wood glue and paint in the garage.  Even some leftover tile glue and grout from our entry way project.  This project was a good way to use stuff up.

I used six of the floor tiles I had in my garage to do the top.  I didn't do anything fancy, just set them in two rows of three.  After the glue set I mixed up a little bit of grout and finished it all off. All of the wood got a good coat of outdoor varathane when I was finished. 

All done!

I did have to go to the store for a can of black paint to do the trim with as I'd run out.  It was on sale for $2.99.  The red paint was a can I had garage already so my only expense on this project was the paint.

We grilled again to make certain everything worked well!  It did!

It isn't perfect by any means, but I didn't intend for it to be.  It is sturdy, fully functional and we think it goes perfectly with our FREE BBQ.  Looks to me like we are ready for a party!