Cypress Green Egg Table

Cypress

This custom green egg table was designed to live outdoors in a relatively small space. I chose to build the cart from cypress, which is a rot-resistant wood that holds up well to the outdoor elements.











The cart's unique shape was designed to maximize functionality within the space. The lid of the green egg requires a good amount of clearance in the back when open. For this particular area, a wrought-iron fence obstructed this clearance and the cart would have had to sit several inches away from the fence in order for the lid to open. By designing the egg to open at an angle, the lid is able to open into the corner of the fence without obstruction while the cart is pushed snug against the back fence.

As with each project that I do, I generally try to implement a technique that I haven't done before. For this project, I decided to shiplap the base panels. Ship-lapping is a technique in which each slat iin the panel has an alternating rabbit cut on each side of the piece. The rabbited joint of one slat overlaps the joint of the slat next to it creating a solid panel. This type of joinery allows the individual wood slats to move freely, which is crucial with any outdoor panels - cypress is known to move a good bit with changes in humidity.

Shipplapped slats form the panel

I chose the stone and cabinet stain to go with the exterior color scheme of the house. 

We also wanted the cart to be mobile. I put it on 5" castors, bringing the total height of the stone top to 36"

Another tricky part of designing a base to hold the green egg is getting the distance between the lower grill support and the upper granite top correct. Since the egg body is tapered, there is a correlation between the diameter of the cutout and the distance between the lower shelf and the top counter surface.To get a snug fit, it's best to mock-up the layout to figure the diameter of the cutout. Using the layout from the previous green egg table that we built, I determined about a 15.5" distance between the lower shelf and granite surface, with a 21" diameter cutout.

The cabinet on the left is deigned to hold charcoal, while the lower drawer can hold some of other grilling accessories. One thing I would have liked to add is a metal pan on the front of the lower shelf. The vent at the bottom of the egg occasionally spews ashes which can char the wood.