DIY Outdoor Area Ideas

We love finding affordable DIY ways to upgrade your outdoor area. If you've got the space but don't have the budget, this blog is for you! Here are some DIY outdoor area ideas to turn your outdoor area into a space you want to be.

READ: Tips for making your outdoor area cosy. 

READ: Semi-permanent outdoor are decor ideas. 

Pallet day bed

Timber pallets are an absolute Godsend! They are versatile and can be turned in beds, coaches, tables and verticle garden walls. Did we mention they are FREE?! Check out Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace for free pallets to use for your outdoor area

Turn a pallet into an outdoor daybed. You can either stack the pallet beds on top of one another as is or for a more high-end look sand them down, nail them together and paint them. They make a great day bed/seating area for you and your guests. Top the day bed with pillows, cushions and rugs.

TIP: Add wheels to your pallet day bed to move it out the way or to a chase the sun!

Wooden Crate Side Tables

Upcycle old wooden crates into a table, side tables or storage boxes. The beauty of these is that they look great in a rustic style which means you don't have to sand, paint and/or varnish it if you don't want to.

Mason Jar Lights

Grab some fairy lights and place them in some old mason jars to light up your outdoor area. Cost effective and oh so romantic!

READ: Outdoor Kitchen Lighting Tips

Low Maintenance Pot Plants

Decorate your outdoor area with nature's beauty! Find some low maintenance pot plants or herbs to decorate your outdoor area. Pansies and violas, palms and herbs like mint and Rosemarie are easy to take care of. If you have some leftover pallets you can create a vertical garden wall.

Upcycled Furniture

Got any old furniture you were thinking of throwing out? Dust them off. Give them a wipe and chuck some chalk paint onto them. Chalk paint is brilliant. You don't need to prime or sand the wood beforehand which is great.

Unique Kitchen Islands - Adelaide Benchtops

Everyone loves an island and we don't mean the one covered in palm trees touching the ocean. Nope! We're talking about kitchen islands. Here are some of our favourite kitchen benchtops right now. If you're looking for Adelaide benchtops, we can help. Send us a message on Facebook or through our website for a quote.

Why a kitchen island?

A kitchen island is a great solution if you don't have a lot of benchtop space. It provides additional benchtop space you may not have. Kitchen islands also act as a dining area or breakfast bar for friends and family. Of course, a kitchen island can also accommodate an additional sink, rinse area or cabinets. Islands can be built in all shapes and sizes. If you're looking for a kitchen island or Adelaide benchtops, Adelaide Kitchen Outdoors would love to turn your kitchen dreams into a reality.

Unique Kitchen Islands

Polished Concrete

Polished concrete is one of the most durable building materials out. It can with stand accidental bumps, scratches and spill. It comes in a range of colours and is suited to industrial and/or modern kitchens. READ: The Beauty of Polished Concrete or Benefits of Concrete Flooring.

Quartz

Quartz as a building material has really stood the test of time. Used in outdoor areas, kitchens and bathrooms, its versatility is a major plus. The uniqueness and beauty speaks for itself. Each slab of quartz is unique and the patterns within the slab add interest. Quartz comes in black/brown or grey/white.

Timber

Another classic building material, that's not only suitable for many styles but is also eco-friendly if it's reclaimed. This particular island has storage space for just about anything. If you like the idea of an island bench but don't have space, you can also get one on wheels that you can use when it's needed and wheel away when you're done.

3 Easy Ways to Make your Home Eco Friendly

Greener homes are the new black. As awareness of climate change, the impact of single-use plastics and landfill control increases so has our desire to be part of the solution, not the problem. There are plenty of simple things you can do in your home that will make a huge difference to the planet. Here are just 3 easy ways to make your home eco-friendly.

Grow your greens

Use wood pallets to create your own veggie patch. Growing your own veggies will reduce your plastic/packaging waste and you'll start eating homegrown, pesticide-free veggies! If you're nervous about becoming the next Ole Mac Donald, start small. Start by growing your own herbs and 'easy-to-grow' veggies like lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, bell peppers and tomatoes.

If you don't have a lot of backyard space, try a vertical herb wall.

Compost posthaste

Keep a compost bin near the kitchen door or in your kitchen with eco-bags to collect green waste. Pop the bag in your green bin where it will be composted to grow more fresh fruit and veg. You may think that your veggie cut-offs will be just fine rotting away in a landfill, but there actually isn't enough oxygen for veggies to decompose properly in a landfill. For greens to properly decompose they need space and the right space to do so. Make your own compost bin using wooden pallets.

Image source: Somerlap

That's a wrap

Ditch the cling wrap and use bee's wax or vegan food wraps. Pieces of fabric are soaked in wax, making them mouldable (but not sticky) to wrap around bowls, plates or mugs. They usually come in a range of sizes to accommodate your crockery. You can also wrap your fruit, veggies or sandwiches using the wrap. This should cut down plastic use in your home big time!

5 Ways to Make Your Kitchen Look and Feel Bigger

A huge amount of space in the kitchen certainly does help but can result in more mess and isn’t always necessary. Here are 5 minor adjustments that will result in your kitchen looking and feeling bigger.Use patternsIf you have a gallery style kitchen, patterns on the narrow floor will help to open that bad boy right up by making it appear longer and more spread out. Also use patterns on the walls - this adds dimension and the illusion of more space.Open and adjust shelvingGetting rid of wall cabinets and opening up and spreading out the storage space makes the room appear bigger. By adjusting shelving, you are maximising storage space and can neatly organise what you store. Make sure you’re organised and your taller items are behind shorter ones and you’re utilising storage helpers. Condense the items and don’t have the spread out, actually giving you more space but also giving you the feeling of having it.Create wealthMirrors create the illusion of more space and the number of stove burners are said to symbolize wealth. So while adding feng shui and used in a sophisticated way, placing a mirror behind your burner multiples the effect of more space and wealth by reflection. It also puts you in command of your own kitchen by giving you a view as to what is happening behind you.Get rid of what you don’t needAssess what you do and don’t use and clear your space by removing what hasn’t ever been used or hasn’t been used in some time. Decluttering makes your kitchen feel bigger and actually opens up more space.Counter clearKeep as little as possible on the counters. Even with the biggest of kitchen work spaces can appear small with unnecessary clutter. Store a few everyday appliances on the counters such as the coffee machine, a toaster and perhaps a knife block. Everything else can be neatly organised and stored away in drawers and cupboards.A smaller kitchen, while not always convenient, can be made to have everything you need and can feel a lot cozier.

Is your Kitchen a Bermuda Triangle? How to Keep Your Kitchen Organised

Kitchens are kind of like babushka dolls. In one area/room we have other compartments forthings, in those compartments we put other things and so on and so forth. We always anticipateneeding more space. More space for our things can mean more space in our heads.When we don’t have a choice as to what size our kitchen area will be, whether it be indoor oroutdoor, we have to make do. And believe it or not in this case, less can be more.Here we have a few simple tips and tricks to keep your kitchen space organised and flowing:

Be mindfulBe mindful.. period but when it comes to the kitchen be mindful that everything needs a spot. Ifyou’ve picked it up from somewhere to use, make sure it goes back there. For some people thiscomes naturally, for others not so much. If you’re part of the not-so-much group. Put a little extracare into knowing where each item’s home is.

Be logicalIf your mugs are near the cleaning supplies, well, you’re in for a frustrating and potentiallyhazardous time. Generally, kitchens are laid out to assist you in this. If not, do your best to haveitems in their designated groups. For example, have the mugs above the coffee machine, thetoaster near the spreads and the cutlery within reach of all of this. This creates a better flow andis more convenient.

Be in the flowOn that note, flow in the kitchen area comes in the form of an invisible triangle. The “kitchenwork triangle” means that if you had to draw a line from your refrigerator to your stove, to yourwashing up area/sink, you would have drawn a triangle. This concept is used to determineefficient kitchen layouts that are both aesthetic and functional. Some of us do not have theluxury of having a room that allows this triangle flow and in that case, logic as mindfulnessprevail.Leave out the packaging and condense your goodsMason jars play a huge part in keeping an organised kitchen by keeping storage aestheticallypleasing and in unison. This looks neater but most importantly, you’re cutting back onunnecessary packaging. Which brings me to...

Reduce, reuse, recycleThey weren’t kidding when they came up with this. Not only for your own living situation is thisbetter, cleaner and actually more convenient but to be captain obvious, it does a great deal forthe environment.

At the end of the day. If everything has a well thought out, permanent place- there is less spaceto fuss with and less of an area to clean.

How to Manage Kitchen Waste

A lot of things come to mind when we think about rubbish. Generally speaking, though, we think rubbish bags. I’m here to tell you that even your average Joe and Josephine have been fooled by the illusion that we need to wrap our rubbish in more rubbish to dispose of it. It’s like throwing a landfill in another landfill. Here's some tips for how to manage kitchen waste.A brief historyRubbish bags came about because people didn’t want food waste dripping into an already sealed off compartment.. go figure. Enter the 1950s and Canadian inventors Harry Wasylyk and Larry Hansen. Wasylyk created the bag in his kitchen, made out of stretchy, waterproof polyethylene.The solution

• Prep your meals and plan your shopping trips. You want to be able to eat what you’ve bought without it going bad. Therefore, buy only what you’ll need.
• Don’t buy unnecessary packaging (if you’re not sure what unnecessary is- the penny will drop when your apple is wrapped in a polystyrene container, wrapped in a layer of cling wrap).
• Eat less livestock, vegan or veggie alternatives that don’t include soy are for the most part tastier and won’t stink up your rubbish bin as much.
• Most importantly, almost all, natural food waste can be used as compost for the garden- throw in some earth worms to generate a richer compost and you’re in business.(Compost if not used in the garden can be stored in newspaper in the freezer or in a separated, unlined bin outside until trash day)

(Tip: Use bees wax covers instead of cling wrap. There are also vegan style food wrap covers if you're anti bees wax)Compost yourselfNot only that but a heap of compost generates enough heat to heat up pipe- so if you really want to make the most of it, you can build a natural, warm outdoor shower. Compost heaps can provide hot water for showers for up to 10 months. In a nut shell, the idea is to layer coils of insulated poly pipe between layers of compost (allow for about 20 cm of mulch for each layer of compost). Leave to bake for about a week and expect a cosy 45 ℃.To make this even more exciting, the water that comes from that shower (provided you aren’t using harmful soaps) allows for further optimisation by enabling the water from the shower runoff to water plants, including fruits.Cut offs and other garden trimmings can also be used for your outdoor shower.(Tip: Try to keep the smellier food compost hidden under plant-based compost)And boom! No unpleasant smells in the house, no trash bags, less nonsense packaging, healthy, thriving garden, an outdoor shower and to top it all off, fresh fruit to pick as you shower or go about your garden duties.

2019 Kitchen Trends - Kitchens Adelaide

Can you believe 2019 is only a month and a week away! Here are four 2019 kitchen trends you can expect to see in the new year. Looking to build a new kitchen or outdoor BBQ area? Get in touch with Justin at Adelaide Outdoor Kitchens for a FREE quote today.

Mixed Metal Finishings

Think brass pendant lighting, metal bar stools and copper rose gold taps. Mixing metals is an easy way to incorporate interest, depth and class in your kitchen.

Matte Black

Matte is the sexiest trend we can expect in 2019! It's sleek, sexy and endearing. Black is a strong colour and looks beautiful alongside dark and/or light timber furniture.

Two-Toned

Your kitchen is probably one of the most used areas of your home. For this reason, it's probably where you want to invest the most time and money to create a kitchen that inspires and encourages creativity. Two-tone kitchens do just this. It's also a totally affordable upgrade. All it requires is a lick of paint on the cabinets! Our main tip is to use darker colours on the bottom and lighter colours on top.

Stone

Stone as a building material is durable, sanitary, long-lasting, eco-friendly and low maintenance. It's also timeless and versatile to be paired with other materials. Stone has been used in kitchens for many years and is making an even bigger come back in 2019 as home owners look to incorporate natural materials in their home. Look at this beautiful kitchen that blends stone with gorgeous light timber.

Looking to build or renovate the perfect outdoor kitchen for you and your family? Get in touch with us for a FREE quote or general advice on building a long-lasting, quality kitchen to your budget.

Creative Ways to Store Books in Your Kitchen

Sure, recipes can be Googled. But there's nothing quite like cracking the spine of an old family cook book! With recipes being so readily available online, you might think people aren't even buying cookbooks anymore. A 2017 article from the Huffington post exclaims, just how un-dead cookbooks are.

“A modern way to think of cookbooks ― and this is the way I tend to think of them ― is to think of them as a book. A book you’ll want to read; a book that has a story; a book that might evoke emotion in you; or that might provoke you; or that might challenge you; or that might ask you questions about society and culture; and cause you to question some things that you didn’t think about before,”

So, without further adieu, here are some creative ways to store books in your kitchen.

Rack em' up!

Turn your spice rack into a book shelf. Use what's already there, slap a lick of paint on it and voila! You have a new book shelf for all your favourite recipe books.

Keep it old school

I love these vintage Pepsi crates. You could easily whip one up yourself or you can grab one off of eBay. They look great in the kitchen and give you extra storage space for your cookbooks (or anything else really!)

Book basket

These can be hooked up to the wall or placed on the benchtop if you have the space. For traditional kitchen styles, use a wicker or material basket and for a more modern look try a metal basket.

Use the unused

Use any unused storage areas or shelving spaces. Try the cutting board shelf for the minimalist look.

Custom made

If you're a real cook book fan and have the space. HeyBluey woodworking, an Adelaide based carpentry business, makes some great shelves. If you're looking for custom made furniture we can help with that too!

Got any creative cook book storage ideas? Feel free to share them in the comments below!