How to: Make an Outdoor Bar and Grilling Prep Station

Grilling and outdoor entertaining season is well on its way, and there’s nothing better than a summer evening spent with friends or special someones eating outdoors. Gathering around a Weber can be fun, but I love the idea of not only cooking food outside, but being able to do the prep work, cocktail mixing, and food presentation outside as well, rather than running in and out with tongs and platters and the like.

Enter this DIY outdoor bar and countertop project by Mejones. It’s constructed from easy-to-find cedar fence pickets and a few 1x2s, as well as just a few tools: crosscut saw, drill, square, and some clamps.

Mejones says, 

I love cooking and hanging with friends. I especially love grilling. So I finally decided to design and build an outdoor counter top for all my grilling prep work (someone makes me chop my onions outside)…oh…and I added a bar top as well. Best thing, since I used fence pickets we are talking less than $100. It can be made even cheaper if you use standard painted outdoor screws and don’t seal it. Without a sealer cedar will gray naturally and cedar is naturally weather resistant, but I wanted mine to maintain the original color of the wood. Hopefully the sealer I chose will last.

We unfortunately don’t get to see any images of it all styled up, but the author mentions the need for some ballast in the bottom to keep things sturdy…some bricks, or better yet, a cooler of cold drinks will do just fine.

Get the full tutorial at Instructables: Cedar Fence Picket Outdoor Bar / Countertop