Sunday, January 24, 2016

Building An Outdoor Kitchen: #3 The Finish



In the last post we looked at how we framed up the walls and roof of our outdoor kitchen
so now let's look at the finishes we used.

This 3 part series to date:
Please read on.


We found some nice through-body porcelain tile that we liked 
Through-body or single fired porcelain refers to the tile
 being the same color all the way through the tile.
Thus when the tile is cut you still get the color on the cut edge,
making it much easier dealing with corners.

The grey tile in the photo above is set with thin set directly to the block wall.

In the photo above, the waterline and drain pipe on the right go to the sink.
The water comes through a hose (suitable for potable water) from a nearby faucet.
We unhook the hose during freezing weather
 and the hose and copper pipe are sloped to drain automatically.
The drain line goes to an adjacent apple tree to provide water for that.


The green porcelain tile is set against 1/4" cement board, 
which is laid over 15# felt paper, which is laid over 3/8" plywood.

The windows and wood trim are recycled rough cut ponderosa and fir 
that I milled up to what I needed on the table saw.


The grey corner trim tiles are actually limestone countertop scraps from another job.

The rectangular blank spot on the wall was left to do a mosaic at a future time.


I intended for the tile and wood trim to mimic raised panels
 as you might see on doors or wainscoting.


The window frames and mullions are all mortice and tendoned.


Allison installed the backsplash from leftover pieces of tile.


Some of the tile pieces are from a friend who collected china vases, plates and bowls
 which were broken in an unfortunate accident.
When she gave us the pieces many years ago I just knew we would eventually find a use for them.
The hardest part was getting the curved aspects of the dishes flat enough for a wall.


We left the part of the frame you see above as open shelves...


and between the window and shelves, above, is a raised panel and trim.

Besides providing a place to set things
 the shelves also act as support to the walls to prevent racking
 as a result of the open sides and large amount of windows.


The stone pedestal holding up the corner post is a piece of granite from a nearby quarry
and is set in concrete about a foot into the ground.

Tiling the block walls inside the outdoor kitchen is a future project.



This 3 part series to date:
Thanks for reading.