Outdoor Kitchen Sink

I love to cook, but my problem is that I make a huge mess in the kitchen. This is a source of great stress for my wife. I’ve worked hard to change my bad habits (no sponges left in the sink, lean cutting board against the wall so it can dry properly, no cooking greasy food in the morning). But I also have a goal of having a second kitchen in the backyard.

I recently added an umbrella with light, so i can cook in the rain and at night. The next enhancement is to install a kitchen sink. With an outdoor sink, dirty pots and smelly pans don’t need to enter the house at all. The indoor kitchen stays cleaner.

My friend recently remodeled his kitchen and had a cast iron farmhouse style sink that he no longer needed. Just what I needed to get this going.

Materials

• four rustic rubberwood posts (36″ inch high)
• 4ft birch butcher block– the countertop
• two 8ft pressure treated douglas fir 2x4s – the base that holds the legs together
• Kelly Moore – Rich Georgia Clay interior paint – leftover paint from master bedroom
• Varathane exterior polyurethane – to coat the paint and make it resistant to outdoor
• kitchen sink faucet
• kitchen sink strainer
• garden hose to connect from sink to water
• adapter for pipe thread to garden hose thread
• adaptor for garden hose to 1/2″ sink hose
• 1″ wood dowels – to connect the butcher block pieces together

Tools

• Black & Decker jigsaw – to make the rough opening cut for the sink
• paint brushes
• 3M rubber sanding block
• Dewalt electric hand drill
• Kregs jig – for making strong wood to wood joints
• Spade drill bit – for cutting the holes for the wood dowel to connect the butcher block pieces
• Jab saw – for cutting off the corner of the posts with little clearance

Design Decision: Draining the waste water

I considered various locations for the sink based on the best way to drain the water. I could install drain pipes or dig a large ditch. I decided the best location in the backyard is by the chimney. It is near the water source and the gas stove, and has some shelter from the wind and rain. However the ground is covered with pavers so I cannot dig a ditch or a channel to drain the water away.

I was hesitant on starting the project until I saw this DIY outdoor ktichen sink article. The outdoor sink used a simple bucket to drain the water. I used the design as inspiration for my kitchen sink.

Making the Countertop

I put the butcher block on top of the sink and drew an outline of the sink on the butcher block. Then I moved in one inch from all sides because it is an over-the-counter sink.

I plan to use the middle part of the butcher block as the back side of the counter top. This way I don’t waste any of the butcher block.

Here is the pieces of the butcher block laid out before I connected it together with the wood dowels and wood glue.

Using a 1″ spade drill bit to cut the holes for the wood dowel.

The assembled countertop. I had some smaller butcher block pieces left over that I used for a small shelf that you can see in later pictures.

The sink was too heavy to just lift up and insert into the opening. But before I glued everything together I did a sanity check to see if the sink fit properly.

Even on the dolly the sink is difficult to push around. I eventually painted the countertop red because the wood stain looked strange with the colored posts.

Painting

I did four coats of the colored paint – Rich Georgia Clay. And four coats of polyurethane for UV and water resistance.

I briefly considered getting a paint sprayer, but they are costly and a friend said they waste a lot of paint and is not much faster than just doing it by hand with some nice brushes.

Paint one coat, then wait 2 hours and do another coat.

Assembling the kitchen countertop

Set the posts under the countertop. Then measure the distances between the legs where the 2x4s will go.

Highly recommend using a kregs jig to connect the 2x4s to the posts.

The countertop lined up nicely with the posts. But I would find out later that the corner of the post would be too close to the bottom of the sink. In retrospect I could have made the posts a bit more spread out. But I wanted to have the sink rest on top of the 2×4 and posts as much as possible, which was the right decision.

Getting the sink into the counter

The sink weighs more than 150 pounds. It would take 4 people to carefully lift it over the countertop. It would be tricky to coordinate with a medium possibility of injury. We would have to lift it high to clear the countertop by standing on some platform. I didn’t want to take that risk. Several days went by thinking about what to do. One morning, laying in bed, I thought of an idea.

I would lay the table on its side. Then raise the sink, one concrete block at a time, alternating sides, until it lined up with the rough opening. I could barely lift one side of the sink about the height of the block.

At this point I could push the sink into the opening and power lift the whole assembly upright. Victory! I was able to raise the table up. But then I saw this:

The bottom of the sink was wider than the support structure and the posts. The sink was resting on something. I was not going to bring the sink back down to the ground and take it out. So I got on my hands and knees under the sink and used my back to push the sink up out of the opening and off to the side a couple inches at a time, until I had enough space to chip away at the 2x4s and post.

It was not pretty. And I had to do it 4 times, meaning I chipped away at some parts, then moved the sink back into place with my back, found the sink stuck on some other part and then moved the sink back out with my back, chipped away some more. It’s good that all the ugliness is hidden under the sink. My back was sore for two days, but luckily no permanent spinal injury.

Installing the faucet

The sink came with a nice faucet, but the insert was broken in two.

Got this cool looking faucet online, but it ended up being way too small for the sink. I returned that one but here is a link if you like that faucet. Note: The left over butcher block pieces in the background was made into a shelf.

I went to home depot but couldn’t get myself to spend $200-$300 on a kitchen faucet. There was high chance it would probably break after a few seasons outdoors. I ended up a $70 faucet from amazon. Out of the box, the toggle switch and detachable head felt super flimsy. But I’m glad I stuck with it, because when water is running through it at pressure, everything feels solid.

Hooking up the water

I spliced in a t-connector into an existing water pipe and ran the t-connector to a 1/2″ hose rated for 400psi. I read that the hose should not left under pressure, so I install a shutoff valve in between the garden hose and the source. Also in the winter, when there is risk of the water freezing, i will shutoff the valve and drain the water out from the hose and the faucet.

The difficult part of the water hookup is making it leak-proof when the system is under pressure. At first I used a plastic threaded connector which was impossible to stop leaking. Teflon tape doesn’t help. After switching to a metal connector the leaks stopped.

The hose then connects to the sink hose using a hose to 1/2″ adaptor. I only hooked up the cold water. But I’m going to try to hookup the on-demand camp shower to the hot water of the sink.

Final Result & Next Steps

• get a nice rustic tin bucket and get rid of the plastic home depot bucket
• paint over the kreg holes
• make a cutting board to fit over the sink to increase food prep space and provide cover from leaves and debris.
• hook up the on-demand hot water from the camp shower
• a light for night-time washing
• a rack for pots and pans