Hillbilly garden kitchen

Something a little different than my normal blog about walks, our garden has been an evolving beast (as so many do when a young family grows up and the needs change), and in this new incarnation we have built a rustic garden kitchen, trying to capture a bit of the deep south and the home of the BBQ.

"Bulls Kitchen" in old Viking runic text (pyrography thanks to my daughter)

The area we had allocated was around 8ft square so easily big enough, it was at the end of the deck that we used for eating out on so a perfect fit

The first job (after clearing the land and leveling off was to mark out for the posts, I used 75mm fence posts set into the ground with post fix, i also used the same posts to make the frame and supports for the long food bar

Slabs were set (on a concrete base) just within the area of the kitchen that would be walked on, 10mm pea shingle (matching the rest of the garden) added all around

I really wanted 'used' galvanised roof sheets but wasn't able to find any suitable, or that I could transport and new galvanised cost too much. I had to settle with painted steel roof sheets, I'm sure they will weather in and not look too bad in a year or so

The walls were then clad in treated timber (the local wood yard cutting them pretty much to size and to fit in my car) this was painted first in colour outdoor wood paint before being 'aged' with brown watered down fence paint.

The effect is exactly what we wanted, looking like different old wood panels had been used, the front bar was added with a small counter top with space to sit at, the long counter is wider to allow for food to be served

The double barrel smoker fitted in along with the wood fired pizza oven, I built shelves for a drinks cabinet and loads of storage under the long food counter

and added in a fridge along with lighting (connected to an RCD switch in the garage)

The kitchen sits very nicely in the garden with the rest of the outdoor lighting

Then comes the fun task of adding the decoration, starting with the 'Jack Daniels' drinks shelf and empty 1 litre JD bottles with fairy lights inside

Aldi provided the galvanised food serving trays, napkin and cutlery holders plus the drink bottle stand

..... and finally the food, hot wings, jointed rabbit in garlic, lemon & herb marinade and mutton shish

The ever changing garden 16 years apart

I'll return with a walking blog soon (Petersfield to Rowlands Castle)