Backyard bbq station {DIY}

I mentioned that the new BBQ station is Geoff’s favorite spot and I can’t blame him. We are so happy with how this area came together. We have been saying for awhile it was time to give Geoff a great BBQ area. He has a passion for grilling and smoking meat, but has always had to trek back and forth into the house to do all his prep work. Our kitchen is not nearest the backyard, so just imagine him walking through my family room carrying meat, ha, not the best set-up.

So I started sketching what I imagined for the space and Geoff mentioned what he’d love for the space and together here is what we created.

This large prep area has two doors to access storage. The right side is where he can fit his charcoal bags and the left side holds his utensils, charcoal chimney starters and more. It has really allowed his bbq to not be full of these items. The concrete counter tops we made give him the perfect spot to prep the food and can act as a serving station.

This left side station just acts as a handy surface for him. It is nearest the bbq, so he’s used it to hold his utensils, spices, BBQ mitts and more. It has really allowed him to be more efficient and just be able to enjoy the grilling process.

So, how did we build this….with lots and lots of wood. We used a mix of 2x4s and 1x3s. Started by building the short sides to the height we wanted which was to be a total of 34″ including the 1 1/2″ counter tops, making the vertical cuts at 32.5″. I’ll let the visuals guide you as you can see we then attached cross pieces.

This structure shows two sides pieces with a center vertical that we then attached plywood to. We don’t have a pocket hole kreg jig, so we just made our corners as seen below.

I then painted the entire structure black before we started adding the horizontal slats.

We constructed the small structure in the same fashion of the large one, but without shelves because we knew this structure wasn’t going to open. Once each structure was painted we started adding the horizontal slats.

My tip to you is be sure to paint the horizontal slats before attaching them to the structures, it’ll save you a whole lot of trouble trying to get into the grooves.

For the horizontal slats we used 1x3s which I did a paint wash on, that way the wood grain could show through a bit. A paint wash is just one part paint to two parts water, apply it with a foam brush.

When attaching the horizontal slats you want to determine what your ideal spacing will be. Find something to use that is hard and consistent so that you can use it over and over while attaching all the slats. We used 6mm hex keys, just happened to be what we had on hand. Have wood glue and a brad nailer on hand to attach them all. For the small structure it was pretty simple, we just continued with our spacing and checking that things were level. We didn’t do the corners at 45 degrees angles, we just chose to have them butt up to one another.

Now, for the large structure, this one is obviously trickier because we were creating doors too. For the doors, we pondered many ways we could create these, but I think what we did ended up being pretty simple.

We used a 1×3 and added three hinges to it while it was just on the ground.

Then we attached this piece to the structure, make sure this is level vertically.

Then we grabbed a precut 1×3 to the size of this right door, that would be the top horizontal slat. Lined it up level to the top surface of this hinged piece, extended it to the left and then attached another vertical 1×3. You’ll definitely need two sets of hands for this.

You can see above, the hinged part is at the bottom of the photo, the horizontal piece is wood glued and nailed to it and then at the far left edge of the horizontal we attached another vertical in the same fashion. Now you use your same elective spacing and continue attaching your precut horizontals to these verticals… in the end, you have a door.

You’ll want to attach the side pieces on this structure last, because you need to accommodate for the door “swing” on either side. Our side pieces ended up being set back about an inch, but you can’t tell from the front.

This completes the structure building, phew! Next up, concrete tops. We followed a great tutorial that I’ll link here, be sure just to follow it and purchase everything he mentions. We had never worked with concrete and let me tell you, we may never again haha. Kidding, kind of. You definitely need to be prepared to work quickly, be organized and make sure your drill can handle it. We had to grab our power drill mid-mix because Geoff’s handheld one just couldn’t handle the job.

We absolutely love the space we have created out here. It has given Geoff a BBQ station he deserves, a space for us to serve from and something really nice to look at. It definitely completes this area for us. Now, we just can’t wait to have people over!

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