The Greening of Gavin

Our New Outdoor Kitchen – Reuse Extraordinaire!

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To complement our outdoor clay oven area, we decided to use some of the space near it into an outdoor kitchen.

We had a builder friend build the actual cabinet and seating out of pine and an eco pine cladding.  As you can see, the cabinet doors have not been fitted yet, but he is fitting them this weekend.  This job is a little beyond my DIY skills.

We have a second hand stainless steel sink to be fitted, and a two burner stove top that will be installed at the other end of the bench, which in the future will be able to be converted to biogas.

Out of shot to the right of the picture is the Clay Oven, which completes this kitchen.

Anyway, another interior designer friend gave Kim two boxes of Caesarstone samples, which were tile-shaped, so we decided to tile the bench using this material that was otherwise destined for landfill if we did not save it.

It came up pretty well, we think.  After a quick grout, it looks fantastic.  Even our builder friend said it was a great example of reuse.

Now for the seating.  Kim wanted the pipes from the laundry covered up, but I had one condition.  That it be done in such a way that I could connect a grey water hose externally.  She said that the hose had to be hidden as well.  Okay then.  
Can’t see it now.  We painted the box seat with outdoor woodland grey that we had leftover from another job.
I found a rather large hose, which was a spare from the swimming pool, and we connected up a drain diverter.  The diverter is a simple knob that diverts the flow of grey water from the drain to the hose.  The hose is long enough to reach most trees in the front fruit orchard which is a great bonus. 

There is the hose and the diverter in the box.  Very easy to fit.

And with the little door closed, you would never know it was there.  Who said that being green had be unaesthetic?  
So that is where we are up to.  Once the doors are fitted the large cabinet, we will give them a lick of paint. We have a plumber coming in the next few weeks to connect the sink and the gas top.  
I will be glad when it is all finished.  Just in time for the spring weather.  Looking forward to a cooked breakfast of fresh eggs collected no more than four meters away and prepared outside.  This kitchen will also be a great area to prepare food for Clay Oven parties.
It feel great to have given a second life to lots of items in this build.  Have you reused anything major lately?

About Gavin Webber

Gavin Webber's daily goal is to live a more sustainable lifestyle, in an effort to reduce his family's environmental footprint so we can all make a difference for our children & future generations to come.

Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

Comments

  1. BevB says

    You & Kim are going to love the outdoor kitchen Gavin. It’s so convenient when cooking & eating outdoors to be able to clean up outdoors as well 🙂

    Reply

  10. rabidlittlehippy says

    It looks fantastic Gav and I love the hidden greywater diverter too. Being environmentally friendly NEEDS to be aesthetically pleasing in my books. It sets a great example for all others then. 🙂 And what an awesoome and beautiful example your place sets.
    We too have been on the reuse circuit somewhat. We’ve been upgrading the chook pen to segregate fowl and ruminants as we suspect our darling Anna is entering the final days of her confinement. 😀 Sterile kidding environment required. To allow access for us between the areas though we’ve been reusing discarded security doors. There is a solid steel entry into the chook pen now and the old front door is now an internal divider. I also concreted some small rocks into the shallow end of a bathtub which I manhandled (should have contreted AFTER I located the bath) into the chookpen to upgrade bathing facilities for our ducks. We’ve also got an old laundry sink which we hope to plumb in which means we can wash up after chicken culling or gardening etc without needing to bring things inside. It will likely be cold water only but even so.
    Nothing like a repurpose or reuse.

    Reply

  11. Pavel - Desirable World says

    Looks stunning, Gav. I really like the tile work.

    I am somewhat fetishy over built-in, practical furniture. It makes so much sense. Why have furniture floating all around the place, serving a single purpose when it can incorporate storage and hide things like your grey water system?

    I’m in the process of drawing up plans for my tiny house and incorporated furniture is top of the list. For example, consider beds. The beds that we see at Freedom or IKEA, they all have something in common, they are so low to the ground – making the space to small and awkward to be used seriously for storage. And even if you could, it is something of a social no-no to store things under your bed – when I was a kid it was something my mum would always check. The bed I have designed for my tiny house will sit 500-750mm off the ground, allowing for shelving and hanging space. It will be my wardrobe. Under the couch in the living area – that’s where I will store my battery bank for my solar system.

    Reply

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