Here's my new large / small BGE stone and cedar grill table

I was inspired by this forum to upgrade my setup and take a shot at building my own BGE table.  I have a small BGE, which I love, and was looking to add a large alongside and have a nice space to cook on.  This forum has been a constant source of ideas for me, so I will share my process.

I had limited space due to needing to maintain space for a walkway behind the build area; I only had room for about two feet of depth for the table.  I therefore had to go with a fairly minimalist design with pedestals and and an open back.  This kept the design less complicated and the overall weight to a manageable level, which was still significant.

I like anything that is made out of stone, so the idea was to build the table with stone blocks, stone tabletop and pedestals, and add a front cabinet door and shelf made out of some nice wood.  Some quick calculations made me realize this thing was going to be very heavy (it is 3500 lbs with the eggs), so a proper foundation was needed.  I decided to go with concrete block for the floor rather than pouring a slab.  I dug down about 1.5 feet, added about 500 lbs of stone then 1000 lbs of crushed stone, with lots of tamping along the way.  After this was down and level, I added a few bags of leveling sand and then laid down concrete blocks, I used solid block that was 16 x 4 x 4.  I then filled in around the area with crushed stone and dirt for drainage and support.  This ended up being about 2000 lbs in material and finished up very solid.  







For the table build, I decided to go with the common 10.5 x 7 x 3.5 rumble stones you can find at Home Depot or Lowes.  I knew I would need about 150.  I didn't like the standard gray color, so I ordered a pallet of 96 of the reddish variety to be delivered to the house.  The idea was to use the reddish ones for all the areas you see - the front and sides - and then use about 50 regular grey ones out of sight for the interior and back that I could supplement with Home Depot runs.  I did a lot of planning with the design in advance so I rented a big chop saw and stacked the whole table in one very long, 15 hour day.





I then sourced some 1.5 inch bluestone from a local stone yard for the table tops and pedestals.  I had to get a custom cut made for the small egg's pedestal as it was not a standard size.  I left a gap under the big egg for a simple ash drawer, which is just a large stainless steel tray.  This ended up being a nice add on as it lets me keep the storage area for the charcoal and other supplies, and keeps the ash out of the way.

I wanted to use wood for an interior shelf in the storage area as well as a simple front cabinet door.  The cabinet door sits just above the ground and there are no hinges - it just pulls off and I place it off to the side.  I used finished cedar 1 x 4s for all the wood parts.  I stained the shelf and the cabinet door and then applied four coats of polyurethane and added some cool hardware that I found.  I mounted some magnets to the underside of the bluestone tabletop that keeps the door securely on as it grabs the hardware that was installed on the corners.  The storage area tubs can hold about 40 lbs of lump along with several other items on the shelf.  I finished up with some brick edging on the tabletop and pedestals to add some color and structure.  Total cost was about $1850. 





I am happy with how it turned out, it exceeded my expectations from an esthetic standpoint and has been very functional as well.  We all get satisfaction from the items that we craft on our eggs, and I get some added satisfaction working in an area that I designed and built myself.  There is a lot of potential for this area - in the spring I am going to build out a plantar on the left side where you see some of those extra pavers stacked, add some bushes behind, as well as add a post for some hanging plants and maybe a light.  

If you are thinking of making your own table I say go for it!