Modern Rustic outdoor kitchen in SW19
Rustic kitchen in Wimbledon SW19
We had an enquiry in May 2019 from professional couple Tom and Hannah in Wimbledon S.W. London looking for someone to design and build a modern but rustic kitchen for their rear garden. The brief was to design a straight-line kitchen with gas BBQ and outdoor fridge with adequate worktop space for food preparation to be sited between two apple trees about 3.5m apart.
After much discussion on materials, the clients chose a beautiful random coursed weathered York stone called ‘Newbold’ from our stone supplier of choice, Bingley Stone to give that rustic country look. Given the state of the neighbours fence backing the area, it was decided to raise the rear wall to 1.6m to hide it and also to give a nice clean looking back drop to the kitchen.
It also enabled us to add discrete LED strip lights into the coping to illuminate the wall and prep area at night and add a stainless steel hanging rail for utensils while cooking.
With a budget of max £10K all in, we chose a cast concrete worktop, shelf and coping for its neutral grey colour to blend in with the existing paving, Beefeater Discovery 3 burner BBQ and Beefeater Outdoor rated fridge.
If we had gone for a top of the range ‘Wolf’ ‘Firemagic’ or Lynx BBQ with ‘Blastcool’ outdoor fridge, we would be looking at a minimum budget of £22K a figure that normally only gets spent on new builds such as our other Wimbledon or Potters Bar project.
A note on Beefeater BBQ’s-
Please allow us to talk through the possibilities when choosing a BBQ for your outdoor kitchen project. Beefeater who made the BBQ on this project have made some badly designed appliances in the past with small details that make installation difficult.
Our project in Lynchmere from 2015 ran into all sorts of issues as the side burner and doors both leaked after rain, something we warned against but because of budget constraint, had to be installed rather than the more expensive models we normally specify.
On reading the small print, Beefeater require that their appliances be installed ‘under cover’ despite being sold for outdoor kitchens. This is a particular problem in Europe, as Australia, where the appliances are made, has a completely different drier climate.
They are making progress however and some of their newer models have sorted out little details like water ingress and the position of the gas inlet making finishing a lot easier and neater.
Rustic kitchen or Modernist?
Of course, someones ‘Rustic kitchen’ is another persons ‘Modernist’ as although the stone surfaces are rough and irregular, they are cut into courses with very small mortar joints achieved by laying mortar and then almost pushing the stone blocks into place rather than tapping down. The overall effect is to give a sharp defined shape to the kitchen edges that is complemented by the cast concrete worktop and recessed lighting. The materials speak for themselves so cross the boundary from ‘Rustic’ to ‘Arts and Crafts’ or ‘Modernist’
The result is stunning, very simple in conception but rich in detail and light play across the surfaces. It fits particularly well on the terrace of stone paving set at the end of the garden and with plenty of power sockets and lighting options, the area is perfect for entertaining large numbers of guests at home parties.
Hi Amrit,
Thanks very much for finishing off the project – it looks great. Understood regarding the BBQ and yes that would be great if you could pop by at some point just to try and tidy up the loop on the LED strip. Also, would be great if you could please send over a scan of the invoice/proof of purchase for the BBQ and fridge as I need these to register the warranties. Thanks again for all of your help and hope you have a great summer too.
Thanks, Tom ( by email)
For more information on the design of outdoor kitchens, please see our page here. Outdoor kitchens are entirely scalable and what you decide to incorporate should be down to how you live and cook. The choice of materials is wide but their common factor is watertightness and durability, after all you won’t want to be mopping up water from inside cupboards or having to replace carcassing after a few years. It definitely pays to get the best appliances you can afford as they are better made and have fewer design compromises.
Rustic kitchen in Wimbledon SW19 We had an enquiry in May 2019 from professional couple Tom and Hannah in Wimbledon S.W. London looking for someone to design and build a modern but rustic kitchen for their rear garden. The brief was to design a straight-line kitchen with gas BBQ and outdoor fridge with adequate worktop […]