Advice for outdoor kitchen setup

DHall

I have just moved into a new house and have a great area on our deck that I am converting to an outdoor kitchen. I will be using my large and xl eggs and as well as a cabinet that was removed from the house when we gutted the kitchen. I am trying to decide how to lay things out and am looking for advice from anyone and everyone. The deck is wooden but we are putting a tile floor down and we are adding a shed type roof to cover the portion of the deck where the grills and cabinet will be. One side is the exterior brick wall of the house with the opposite side being the rail of the deck which is about 5 feet above ground level. The other two sides are an entrance to our screened porch and the last side opens onto the main part of the deck. I am debating whether I should put the grills against the house wall(brick) or against the rail of the deck. The cabinet would go on the side the grills do not. I will take some pics later so maybe that will help with what the area looks like. Any advice before we dive in? I am running power to both sides and planning to put in a ceiling fan and good lighting as well.

Misippi Egger

I am in the same boat - designing a screened porch extending from a smaller open porch and want to build an area for my LBGE (and maybe future eggs) plus have cabinet space for eggcessories.

The Naked Whiz has a great site for tons of different set ups, just not quite what I had in mind. I am also wondering about smoke under the roof. I will have screen behind the cooking area, but if the wind comes from that direction.....

I will be interested to see what you decide.

Here's the "Whiz's" link:

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/TableGallery/tables.htm

DHall

Thanks. Ive looked over the tables at the Wiz's site many times and have come up with egg table designs several times just havent built on yet and dont know what I am going to do about that yet in the new area. I have a BGE brand table for my large and the XL is a nest for now.

RCflier

I took my inspiration on layout, and fitting in the egg from these two:

Pivotizer
and Krusty

to get this (but I only fit in one egg, if I add another, I will have to build a platform at the far end like pivotizer's):


and as it currently stands:

SSN686

Morning DHall:

I would recommend not putting the Eggs next to the house if possible just as a safety precaution. You can click on the link below to see the development of my outdoor kitchen.

Big'un

Here's a really poor picture of my OD kitchen while it was under construction. I took my eggstand portion from Jay's plan. It makes it so much easier to build and to set up your egg. The openness really allows the egg to cool and heat as it was designed.

Misippi Egger

Great job !

Misippi Egger

Big'un,

Any issues with smoke under the cover of the porch?

jeffinsgf

Look at Spring Chicken's design to see how to eliminate the smoke issue. He's got a beautiful cupola on his that keeps the rain out but lets the smoke out. I'm going to go with a single slope shed style roof so the smoke can roll out, but my little shack is going to be pretty rustic.

DHall

Ok so here are a few pics so you can get a better idea of the layout I am working with.
Looking out from the screened breezeway. On the left is the brick side of the house on the right is the railing with stairs going down. The roof will cover out from the screen wall to just past the far rail of the stairs.


From the other side looking back towards the screen wall


Brick Wall side of the house


Railing on the opposite side. This is where I am thinking about keeping the eggs since it will be closest to the outside edge where smoke can escape as well as being away from the house.


I hope these pics all show up fine. For the time being the eggs will stay in their respective storage devices...table and nest until I have more time to come up with how I want to house them. Just want to get the roof over top and the tile underneath so I can use the area

fishlessman

if it were me, the eggs on the rail and the cabinet behind me on the brick. cabinet in my case would be a catch all and i wouldnt want to be looking over that to see whats going on in the yard.

Cajun

I have a screened in porch with an aluminum slanted roof attached to the house. The BGE is on rollers and sits against the outside as far as it can go and still open the lid. I have a cover for weather.

I wouldn't worry too much about smoke on the ceiling. I have used mine for 6 years and the white aluminum ceiling does not show any smoke residue.

Cajun

RCflier

Thanks. It's been a lot more work, time, and $$ than I was expecting.. which I should have expected :laugh:

Big'un

I haven't noticed any trouble with the "underdeck". I used tin roofing and painted it Haint Blue to keep away the mud dobbers. I absolutely love it! I also have a ceiling fan above to eggs to help disperse the heat and smoke.

Misippi Egger

My current porch has stained beadboard, but the builder wants to lower that ceiling to make it match with the ceiling height of the extended new screened porch (still pretty high). Was planning on keeping a ceiling fan over the "cooks" area to cool the cook and blow smoke. I'm not so much worried about discoloring the ceiling as I am about having to deal with "smoke in the face". :laugh:

DHall

Yup smoke in the face was more my concern. Hopefully ceiling fan will help alleviate that.

Big'un

You'll be fine most of the time!

SWOkla-Jerry

Here is my table's I had built. Lge and XL under porch roof, and wooden deck. I haven't had any problems with wood above eggs scorching.

"Sparky"

Hey D,I would also recommend putting the eggs away from the house.At least you won't be staring at a wall while you're cooking When you plan your lighting,make sure that you put the lights to the side(not directly over)of the eggs.Maybe track lighting would work for you.That's what I plan to use in my new outdoor kitchen.I had cans before,but my new ceiling is exposed(no cans here).
Old set-up:Note:the can lights above each egg are pointing toward the other egg(less shadows and the dome doesn't block the light)



New set-up:No place for can lights,so I'll run track lighting around so I can adjust them if needed

Grillin Guy

Here's how I set up my outdoor kitchen. Still need to put in a sink but it's almost there.
The egg table is BobbyB's design. I like it because it's open in the back for easy removal of the eggs during hurricane season and football tailgating.

DHall

Really appreciate all the pics guys keep em coming. Always love seeing pics of what other folks come up with. Helps to get those creative juices going and come up with a list of stuff to file away for the day I build a house and my ultimate Outdoor Kitchen. For now I will do the best with the space I have to work with.

Oh and Im loving that several Mississippi folks are chiming in too.

Unknown

I am trying to get good measurements for mounting an XL Egg in an inside corner of an outdoor kitchen - looks about like the drawing you sent to DHall.
I am trying to figure out where to stop the two sides that are coming together in the corner so that I can have the egg sit forward as your drawing shows.
Can you help with either the angle across the inside corner or the "gap" between the 2 side counter fronts?

Thanks.

Paul