Our New Outdoor Kitchen And More originally published on Food and Fond Memories on December 7, 2012 by sandyaxelrod Leave a Comment (Edit)
Our New Outdoor Kitchen And More
I made brand new cushions and pillows for our rattan chaises
A while back I hinted about our new outdoor kitchen and I can finally tell you all about it. It all began with Steve replacing the wood on a garden wall in our backyard. When it was originally built it was constructed with concrete block and stucco and topped by a really long narrow planter made from wood. Our contractor used pressure treated wood on the inside of the flower box but not on the outside. Unfortunately the box was too narrow to really grow anything so Steve closed it in and added a row of glass block to the top. I looked great for a few years and then we started noticing that the wood was rotting and even had holes in places. Happy to have a project he decided to remove the glass block, rip off all of the old wood and replace it with pressure treated wood, then paint the new wood and replace the glass blocks.
A funny and scary incident happen during the demolishion portion. I had cautioned Steve that we could possibly have creatures living inside this “box” because of the entry holes. So he carefully removed the wood. I was watching from our bedroom window and to my shock, when he lifted the top board of a long section, a huge opossum reared his ugly head! Steve did not see this and took the board off and threw it in his pile of debris. When he turned back around he must have jumped six feet back because he was staring down at this huge animal. I was laughing all safe inside but of course worried at the same time that the possum might bite Steve because he was pissed. Steve shooed him out of the box and out of our yard with that long board and the possum was hissing at him the whole time. You really couldn’t blame him. After all he had just been evicted without any warning of his home being foreclosed on.
Our Jenn Air Gas Grill and Luigi our Lobster Server
Anyway back to our project. Steve did a way better job than our “licensed contractor” had done. Now the garden wall looked so good it made everything else look shabby by comparison. So my job was clear. I had to recover all of the cushions on the patio furniture. So off I went to the fabric store and found the perfect fabric. The only problem was there wasn’t enough yardage for my project. I continue my search and found a striped fabric with all of the exact colors in the print that I loved. So I bought them both which gave me plenty to work with. I think that the end result of working with the two fabrics was so much more interesting than having just the print. In addition to covering all of the existing cushions, reupholstered our bar stools and I added a whole bunch of throw pillows to the seating that is part of our garden wall.
A close-up of my tile design before grout or paint.
The Finished Counter with Renewed Barstools
Not to be outdone Steve decided to build a bar height counter to serve on and help create a real outdoor living experience. He tiled the top with leftover tiles from different areas of our home along with wonderful cornflower blue tiles given to us by a friend. The end result was spectacular! Add to that a console cabinet that Steve had built for our RV and a butcher block cart purchased at Costco and our outdoor living space was complete. Well almost complete.
My Brand New Kamado Grill by Vision Works
Steve was at Costco one day in the middle of our big project and called me all excited to tell me that the Kamado grill that I had lusted after was on clearance. OMG!! It was price so well that he just could not leave the store without it. He justified the expense by calling it an early Chanukah gift. Hey whatever works. I am just thrilled to have it and I will write more about my new fabulous grill in future posts. But for now our patio is just about perfect. All that is left is for Steve to make me a unique pot rack for over the butcher block and the frame for a really large serving tray that I want to do a mosaic on with all of the remaining pieces of tile from the counter. We do love our projects!
