Reader DIY: A Modern Granite Grill

We love hearing stories about how our magazine and website have inspired readers to tackle their own modern design projects, at any scale—whether it be a full-blown house or, as featured on the Letters page of our July/August issue, a combination magazine rack and end table made from repurposed issues of Dwell. So we were excited to receive photos of this BBQ grill, sent in by Luciano Marques.

Text by

Jaime Gillin

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Marques studied industrial design in Brazil before moving to the United States, where he's spent the past eight years working as a countertop fabricator. His experience working with granite—and his frustration with gas BBQs whose metal parts eventually rust—led him to create a mobile grill made of stone.

Here's a peek at the finished product. Says Marques: "The idea was to create three symmetrical squares: the grill, the granite top, and the cutting board."

To make the body of his grill, Marques used 3/4" scrap pieces of granite that were left over from the fabrication of countertops and cut them using a professional granite saw. "All those years of working with granite, I saw way too many dumpsters filled with granite scraps—material that was extracted from the earth after millions of years in the making," he says. "I felt the need to recycle them. It was a perfect candidate for my project. Granite is durable against the weather and heat. It's easily cleaned with water and won't rust. There are also infinite possibilities of color and texture that can be combined with wood to make a compelling design."