Custom Outdoor Kitchens: How do they compare to Grillo?

The biggest advantage is that you can design exactly what you want. Size, layout, materials and appliances can all be chosen to suit your space and taste.

Because the kitchen is built specifically for your garden, it can be made to match existing landscaping, patios or architectural features.

This beautifully built Argentinian grill and pizza oven custom kitchen is with thanks to Brickology All Craft, who suggested the following guide pricing:

Labour costs: £9k, including specialist bricklayer for a month. Grill frame: £1k+. Pizza oven materials: £5k. Materials: £3k. Total: £18k+.

If you want something curved or architecturally unusual, custom building may be the only option. Need a kitchen that will fit a 70° corner? Custom could be your only option.

The below custom outdoor kitchen is by Gaze Burvill, who handcraft premium outdoor kitchens from oak, with prices starting at £20,000+ for a small modular kitchen to £100,000+ for a fully custom kitchen like the below. 

Outdoor kitchens often require builders, electricians, plumbers, tilers and carpenters. The project is very likely to require weeks of work. Two tradesmen for two weeks can easily cost $10,000 – $15,000 in labour costs alone. If the project overruns by even a week, you can end up thousands over budget.

Graham Pusey of Roger Gladwell Landscapes told us “Building [custom] kitchens for clients can inevitably take three, four, even six weeks, often requiring at least a two-person team on site. On top of that, it usually doesn’t include the design time or workshop time, depending on the level of joinery involved.

“Building from scratch is a costly exercise, and while it’s absolutely the right approach for certain projects, as is having a kitchen professionally fitted in just a few hours, backed by a high level of aftercare.”

Managing multiple trades on a project is an entire profession in itself. A custom kitchen is a small project, but you should expect to have unexpected problems that require your time or your presence, and schedules that change and conflict. Project management is not for the faint hearted.

Forgive us if this is an obvious point, but it doesn’t occur to everyone. A brick-built outdoor kitchen will need a foundation if it’s not going to crack up. Foundations add labour, material and equipments costs.

They also usually require construction equipment like mini diggers and concrete mixers. This isn’t a problem if you’ve already got a landscaper digging your garden up, but can become a problem if your kitchen’s next to your manicured lawn.

This is a big one, and the more planning you do here, the more likely you are to succeed. Making changes to your kitchen structure part-way through a project is something to avoid at all costs.

Any built-in appliance will come with its own requirements that need considering before you start a build. Don’t assume your builder will know about gas hose routing, or gas bottle storage and ventilation requirements. Bear in mind that many BBQs have fat trays at the back, limiting accessibility once built-in. Just choosing a BBQ brand can require a lot of research – the go-to brand Weber don’t do built-in barbeques. Bear in mind electrical/gas/water services may need to be in place before the structural build starts, and so you may need specialists tradesmen both before and after the structural build takes place. This not an exhaustive list – there is no such list for this type of project! You’ll have to do your groundwork… before the groundwork can start.

Many kitchen materials and building practises that work indoors won’t work for year-round outdoor exposure. Worktops are a classic example, with many common indoor options not being rated for outdoor use.

For instance, if you’re considering concrete or microcement worksurfaces, you’ll need to work with a specialist to avoid cracking, staining and UV-yellowing. The kitchen below cracked up after a few months of weathering.

If you want stainless surfaces, you’ll need to know your stainless steel grades. Stainless steel isn’t stain-proof, it just “stains less” than mild steel – and some will rust if used outdoors.

The list could go on, but in general, be prepared to get into the detail – or work with specialists – if you want a kitchen that lasts.

A custom outdoor kitchen is for life, not just for Christmas: Once it’s in place, you can’t easily move it (or remove it) should you want to.

If something goes wrong later, responsibility can be unclear. The builder may blame the appliance supplier, who may blame the installation, and so on.

Grillo kitchens are assembled from pre-designed components. This dramatically reduces cost for the consumer, and makes complications during the project much less likely. The install is typically completed in a day or two, and all manufacturing labour costs are already included in the kitchen price. Every kitchen is quoted at a fixed price, agreed before the work starts.

Grillo’s Vantage cabinetry requires a patio, decking or similar solid surface, and should be fixed down using the anchor points provided. It does not need foundations or groundworks like a brick-built kitchen. See our Preparing a Patio article.

Grillo’s cabinetry is built using materials intended to last outdoors year-round. Read about Grillo materials here, or see our 10-Year Warranty.

The components are pre-designed, BBQs and appliances designed-in, and the installation teams install our kitchens day after day. The whole process – from design to install to aftercare – is far simpler, faster and more well-rehearsed than custom build. You have one point of contact throughout. In the event of a warranty claim, it’s far less likely to turn into a blame game. It’s in our interest to look after customers and suppliers alike.

BBQs, fridges, sinks and storage are all made to integrate seamlessly with the cabinet system. Gas, water and electrical services, protected appliance spaces, fire safety and regulations have all been considered from the outset. These are the small but important details that can easily be overlooked in a DIY project, but make a big difference to safety and usability.

Grillo cabinets are designed to be easily wiped down or pressure washed, with marine-grade finishes designed to cope with damp, salt and UV. The non-porous sintered stone worksurfaces are stainproof and weatherproof. See our Outdoor Kitchen Care Guide.

A touch of creativity can make a Grillo outdoor kitchen have a more custom feel to it. Here Urban Landscape Design & Construction put a new worktop across the top of the Vantage cabinets and built a drop-down braai over the centre cabinet. These are relatively simple changes that give you Grillo quality along with a more ‘built-in’ look and feel. See the full project here.

Read our reviews on Trustpilot or Google for peace of mind. We have hundreds of case studies on our Portfolio, and have completed thousands of installs. With a custom kitchen you’ll have to rely on reviews of individual tradesmen and individual appliances.

While modular systems offer a range of layouts, they ultimately work within a set of predefined modules, appliances, and sizes. Got your heart set on a kitchen run that’s exactly 3,744mm long? We can often get very close, but matching an exact measurement to the last few centimetres could be a challenge.

As with many modular kitchen manufacturers, we don’t offer a range of colours to choose from. Rest assured, you can achieve a variety of looks by playing with Feature Wall options, and the Grillo Vantage’s neutral colour palette was carefully chosen to complement any garden or property style – see the Grillo Lookbook.

If your outdoor kitchen requires electrics, has a mains gas BBQ (mains gas is optional – most people go for bottled gas) or a sink, you’ll need a professional to complete the connection safely. Our installers aren’t qualified electricians/gas engineers/plumbers, so we have Services documentation to make this process as easy as possible for you and the engineer.

We’ve spent years honing our range of BBQs and appliances. They’re excellent quality and integrate seamlessly with the cabinetry, creating a cohesive overall look. But if you’ve got your heart set on a BBQ or appliance from another brand, integrating it is often difficult or not possible. See our Incorporating Existing Gas BBQs article for more information, and see How Does Bull Compare to Weber for a photo of a set-up where the owner has clipped the wings of their Weber Genesis to make it sit more snugly next to their Grillo Vantage cabinets.

Unusual shapes or spaces may still require a custom build. With Grillo cabinetry, corners are 90°, and fixed lengths means the kitchen won’t always exactly fit your existing space. Having said that, you can get creative with different angles – you may just need to find a way to fill in the gaps, see image and link below. See Small Outdoor Kitchens for more ideas if your space is tight.