Frank's Kitchen is Born

Over the years, the north side of our Livermore California home served many purposes. Storage shed, kids playground, vegetable garden but it wasn't until we installed a sliding door (replacing 2 windows) that the inspiration for Frank's outdoor kitchen was born. With the installation of the slider and the greater accessibility of the side yard it was time to get to work on the kitchen.

I am a computer engineer which means that I look at any challenge as an engineering problem to solve. The first problem to solve is how am I going to build my dream kitchen without spending a TON of money. After a bit of research and talking to a few outdoor kitchen companies I realized very quickly that the only way to do this cost effectively was to do it myself.

Step 1: Frame the kitchen...

Using a frame kit from BBQ Coach (based out of Irvine California) the outline of the kitchen started to take shape. Note that the actual grill that I used is a standard Weber Genesis 4 burner grill. https://www.bbqcoach.com/

Step 2: Install the skin...

The skin of the kitchen is standard cement board that is normally used for shower and bath enclosures. Metal screws attach the cement board to the frame. In a later step, the cement board is stucco'd with white acrylic stucco (no stucco wire needed).

Step 3: Prep for the concrete countertop...

Create a mold for the concrete to be poured. Lots of rebar and metal wire to prevent it from cracking.

Step 4: Pour the countertops...

With the help of 2 of my brother in laws, it was time to pour the concrete top. We used 11 bags of concrete, charcoal tint was added while the mixer was running.

Step 5: Wet sand the countertops...

After 10 days, the forms were removed and the countertops were "wet sanded" using grit sizes from 40 to 4000. The resulting finish resembled polished stone.

Step 6: Install Appliances, Hardware, Doors and Drawers...

Install Grill, Double Burner, Sink, Water Heater, Mini Fridge and Kegerator. The Kegerator was constructed from a 4.9 Cubic Foot chest freezer with an external temperature controller to keep the kegs from freezing.

Step 7: Convince your retired-from-construction brother in law that designing and building a patio cover would be a super-fun project...

Special thanks to Tom Stallings on the design and construction of the patio cover and to Sterling Daniels and Tom Stallings for all the help on concrete pour day !