Barbecue glow-up: Budget-friendly ideas for outdoor entertaining

Irish Examiner

9 hours ago

Want to elevate a humdrum barbecue to a real occasion without spending a fortune on new furnishings? Here's my six trending, add-water-and-stir tips for BBQ season 2025.
Silver screen
Adding a projector, you can stage a movie night after dusk (if the neighbours are on the fence — try inviting them over). The main thing is to have the screen well lit after dark and adequately shaded so as not to blow out the picture. There's a lot of light bleed in a typical suburban garden.
Gazebos, sails, and other forms of screening can help to deflect daylight, necessary outdoor spots and surrounding light from the neighbourhood. Use included contrast and brightness settings on the projector to finesse the show, but don't expect indoor quality and the immersive feel of a back-lit OLED TV with a cheaper model. Look for ambient-light-rejection settings to enhance the picture.
The higher the lumens in your projector, with a matt, flat, undistorted screen, the brighter and sharper the resolution and picture will appear; 500 lumens would be the bare minimum (a professional rig would offer 10,000).
No wall? Look into inflatable screens, priced from around €160 for a 3m x 5m screen to connect to your projector, and use yard-stakes to keep it stable.
Flexitarian cooking
BBQs with flat griddles working alongside a standard flame grill can dramatically expand your cooking technique. There are three ways to go. Add a griddle plate or stone to heat over a regular flame, choose a new BBQ that offers interchangeable plates, or park a full new griddle BBQ to the side of the main cooking area.
The Char-Broil rectangular cast-iron barbecue griddle 37cm x 25.4cm is a typical add-on style intended for a side-burner that may be idling most of the time. It's perfect for fresh omelettes, hot pancakes, or crispy bacon and attached securely to your Char-Broil BBQ it distributes heat evenly and safely; €57, B&Q.
From smash burgers to toasties or omelettes, a griddle increases your range of cooking techniques for a true flexitarian menu. Picture: Charbroil
If you prefer to add griddling to your existing BBQ set up, the Char-Griller Flat Iron three-burner gas griddle offers three burners and electronic ignition for €399, agacookware.ie.
The Versa-Tile, also from Char-Broil, with its patented three-in-one Tile Cooking System, delivers a griddle, grill, and pizza oven in one unit with easily interchangeable tiles. Food and pans slide easily over its surface with no flare-ups to burn food; €560, suppliers nationwide.
Give everyone a break
We've all worn that atrophied grin through a friend's garden do, goose-pimpled and cringing against the cold. Simply adding the right windbreak or improving hedging can transform open-air misery into a still, sheltered environment where the heat from cooking and a fire basket will circulate around your group of friends and family.
Use something like an incense stick (smoking) to detect the prevailing breeze that generally goes through the area. A trellis with real or faux climbers is an easy weekend fix that also provides an area for USB or solar fairy lights.
Screening can be something to introduce with fast-growing hedging or instantly with split-reed frames. File picture
It's vital that any screen or windbreak is completely stable above all things, especially when you're standing it away from a supporting wall or fence. Choose carefully. Explore the wide range of automatic roll-back function screens in various widths in UV-proof, tear-resistant and water-resistant polyester fabric with a PU coating, with mounting accessories and posts; prices from €70 depending on size and supplier.
Try suavehome.ie and aosom.ie. Always stage a few throws or clean, small blankets about for naked knees when people park up after dark.
A real dish
Paper plates and plastic stemware are convenient, and they can even be eco-friendly (look for paper pieces without a wax coating). However, for proper dining with even a hint of adult sophistication, dishes and glassware really do make a difference. With flatware, in the rough and tumble or outdoor eating, things get truly clattered around.
A stoneware dish will take more abuse than porcelain without chipping and will sit more heavily on a wobbly table or knee. With glassware, look for a squat design with a low centre of gravity over tall flutes that can be easily knocked over in candlelit conditions.
Evissa dishes designed by Helen James, hand-glazed in Portugal; plates from €12, bowls from €10, serving bowls €25, oil pourers €25, Dunnes Stores.
Real dishes can be used both inside and as well as out, so reusable ware is an economic choice too. My money is on Helen James's ever so slightly asymmetrical Evissa ware, a classic in stunning, clouded blues.
Hand-finished in a reactive glaze in the iconic potteries of Portugal, these pieces would look fantastic over white linen (I cheat with flat sheets); plates from €12, bowls from €10, serving bowls €25, oil pourers €25, dunnesstores.com.
Check out Sostrene Grene for a perfect foundation in a 240cm x 120cm linen tablecloth from €23.80 sostrenegrene.com.
Ikea does a great line in 1970s-inclined Ombonad wine glasses with a stable, fat little foot in grey, just €12 for a pack of four; Ikea.com/ie.
Magic carpet ride
Outdoor rugs are a real wonder. Take care of them and they will last at least a decade. Why bother? Well, scaled to the space, you're introducing an aesthetic anchor and delivering more of that 'room outdoors' vibe. It's unexpected, it's beautiful, and it marks out the entertainment area perfectly, working with any furniture arrangement.
Back any rugs away from any hot flame cooking area — they are polypropylene or polyester and not indestructible. Secondly, ensure that you place the rug over a level surface away from any steps, without any rises and falls in pavers, for example, or a guest could rudely face-plant in the egg lounger.
Use just the same rules as indoors, aiming to place the rug just under the edge of any sofa. Undersize it, and the rug will simply look mean — oversized, your furniture will look like playthings.
A joyous Unikko floral outdoor rug from Finnish brand Marimekko, from €350, Rugs.ie.
Sustainable rugs like jute and sisal cost a little more and will need to be dragged indoors come September, but it really depends on your climate principles; 180cm x 300cm is a really nice size for most patio areas. Honestly, most rugs should eventually go under cover, or they will slime up in harsh weather.
Ensure there's no colour transfer to paler stones or concrete patios from your rug. Wet weather? Probably best to bring it in. Pricier investment varieties start with Morris & Co, Marimekko and Sanderson (around €350 for a relatively small rug). Bargain? Stunning washable indoor/outdoor runners and kilim rugs in tribal colourways are priced from €79 at rugvista.ie.
Light work
Together with must-have portable LED table lamps, stage the unexpected in two other key ways this summer. First is the ground-standing, overstated standard lamp that's delightfully unexpected in the garden.
Secondly, go for suspended globes and softly sculpted oval organic paper-lantern styles in groups through your trees or bobbing from fencing and whatever supports you have available. An economic buy, everyone is drawn to their gentle glow.
Tall lamps aided by USB, 12V mains with defended cables, or even solar cells can reach up and over your seating and dining areas as a single or double, depending on the area you're washing in light.
The indoor/outdoor range of light solutions for entertainment areas is one of the single best ways to add magic to your outdoor space; Lucande outdoor lamp, €159, lights.ie.
Choose pieces that can be taken indoors or to the conservatory with charging independent of solar cells. Ensure you run any cables and place heftier lights like these out of foot traffic.
Always check the IP rating of any lamp you buy. IP44 is lightly protected against moisture; 22cm solar-powered paper lanterns start at €6 from Ikea (Solvinden collection).
Vietnamese paper lanterns are trending with their teardrop shade, vibrant colours, and tassel ends. Just add some wireless solar strands inside their belly. Battery-operated LED bulbs are available from suppliers including lampandlight.ie; prices from €6 per shade on a bamboo frame from Temu and Etsy.
Homestore+More does an impressive range of garden lighting, including a delightful rococo basket chandelier for just €20 that lights for up to eight hours in shatter-proof acrylic, ideal for hanging low over your dining table, homestoreandmore.ie.