Skip to content

Outdoor Kitchen Islands

Sort by

View

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the grill come with the island?

Both arrangements exist in this range: some islands are supplied complete with the grill and the doors fitted, and others as the structure with openings waiting for equipment. The product page states which, and it is the first thing to check, because two islands that photograph identically can differ by an entire grill.

What else gets built into these besides the grill?

Storage doors and drawers on almost all of them, and on the longer formats a side burner bay, a sink bay and space for refrigeration. Which of those a given island carries is fixed by its openings, so the layout reads as a list of what the outdoor kitchen will be able to do rather than as a shape.

What separates the ranges here?

Layout rather than quality. Each range carries its own set of configurations: which openings it has, where the grill bay sits relative to the counter, whether there is a sink bay and where the storage falls. Comparing two islands means comparing two arrangements, so the useful approach is to sketch how the terrace will be used and see which layout answers it.

Can the island be moved later?

In principle, since it is a structure, not something built in place, and in practice rarely, because the services have been brought to where it stands. That is the argument for settling the position carefully at the start: the island can move, but the gas line is the thing that will not want to.

What does the overhang height change?

Whether people sit at the island or stand beside it. A bar height overhang takes tall stools and puts the seated eye level near the cook's; a counter height one takes ordinary chairs and reads as a table. The stools and the clearance behind them are what the terrace has to find room for, and that is usually more space than the island itself takes.

Is a built island better than a prefabricated one?

They answer different priorities. A built island can be any shape, clad in anything, and made to suit equipment already chosen. A prefabricated one removes the construction and arrives finished. The first suits a project being designed; the second suits a terrace that is otherwise finished.

Can it be left out all winter?

These are made to stay outside, which is the point of the construction and the materials. What a particular island recommends for equipment and for covers over the winter comes with it.

Prefabricated cutouts

When an island is built on site, the grill is chosen first and its cutout drawing tells the builder what opening to leave. A prefabricated island comes the other way round: the structure is made, the openings are in it, and what goes into them has to suit.

That is not a limitation so much as a different route. It removes the construction entirely, which is the longest and least predictable part of an outdoor kitchen. What it asks in exchange is that the equipment list is settled against the island and not the other way round.

Island lengths

The islands here start at forty three inches, which is a single grill bay with a little counter beside it, and run up to twelve feet or more, which is a full outdoor kitchen with a grill, a sink bay, storage and a seating overhang.

The size decision is really a decision about what the outdoor kitchen is for. A compact island is a grill with somewhere to put the plates. A long run is a kitchen that people cook in while other people sit at it, which changes the terrace around it as much as the cooking.

Island construction

These are built as weatherproof structures, with stainless steel bodies and doors and granite or stone tops on several of them. Everything that goes into an outdoor island has to survive rain, sun and frost while being left outside permanently.

A granite top does that better than most surfaces, and that is its whole case here: it takes weather and heat and it does not need to be brought in for winter. The granite slab page covers the material itself.

Equipment and services

The island provides the openings and the structure. The grill, the side burner, the refrigeration and the storage doors are separate products chosen to fit them, and the grills page covers the largest of those decisions.

What the island cannot bring with it is the gas, water and power. Those have to reach the position it stands in, and in most gardens that means a run brought out from the house.

Seating and counter overhang

Above a certain length these islands stop being a cooking station and start being furniture. A counter that overhangs on one side turns the island into somewhere people sit, which is why the longer formats are shaped the way they are.

That changes the terrace around it more than the cooking does. A bar height overhang wants stools and clearance behind them; a flush counter wants the seating elsewhere and leaves the island as working space. Deciding which of those the terrace is for narrows the range faster than any other question.

Siting an outdoor island

An island of this size is effectively permanent once it is placed, both because of its weight and because the services come to it. It also needs a level, solid base underneath, which a terrace may or may not already be.

Those two facts together mean the position is worth settling before anything is ordered. The granite pavers and cobblestone range covers surfacing the area it will stand on.

Cart

Your cart is empty.

My Projects

Loading your projects…

Added to cart

Complete your project

View cart

Choose options