Who Wouldn’t LOVE an Outdoor Kitchen?

Summer is the season of barbecues and a multitude of other outdoor activities. As usual, eating is usually the hub of recreational fun. A day at the lake is not complete without a tasty meal grilled over an open flame. Nothing brings the pleasure of summer fun home as well as an outdoor kitchen. A home that already has a deck or patio is a prime candidate for a few minor and rewarding modifications. A moderately sized patio or deck can be outfitted with a whole host of outdoor kitchen amenities, from a grill island to a cocktail bar.

An outdoor kitchen becomes an inviting extension of living space. In a region like Middle Tennessee, the weather allows for extensive outdoor activity. Consequently, homeowners also want to enjoy as many as possible of their homes’ indoor amenities out of doors. This includes simple things like music from the stereo and patio furniture to lounge on and eat at. In fact, an outdoor kitchen that is built well enough even has the potential to displace many of the messy or smelly heavy duty cooking jobs that are usually performed inside, like rolling out pizza dough or frying fish.

Designers and landscape architects have produced wonderful outdoor kitchen designs employing the best in weather resistant cabinetry, lighting and plumbing. Outdoor kitchens can be custom designed from scratch or purchased as modular units that are fitted to the available space. This guide provides some design basics intended to give homeowners the vocabulary and background knowledge necessary to begin planning and outdoor kitchen. Listed below are some things that any homeowner must take into account while designing their back yard cooking space.

Lighting. Lighting should of course hit all areas of significant activity, including dining and swimming if there is a pool on the property.

Shelter. There are many forms of shelter, from a plexiglass topped pergola to patio umbrellas and retractable awnings. The main purpose of outdoor shelter is to break apart any direct sunlight or sudden rain without blocking breezes and air flow.

Hearth. The hearth is a powerful element of a home. In terms of design, the hearth is the center of the cooking space. The grill, side burners, and sometimes even a roasting spit and a warming shelf are all components of the hearth. If built into a brick or stone structure, the hearth can incorporate things like a fire pit and storage space for firewood to while away the cooler evenings later in the year.

Appliances. Popular appliances in an outdoor kitchen setup include a gas grill, smoker box, undercounter refridgerator, warming drawers and ice makers. The most important element when considering appliances is to make sure they’re UL-approved and can plug into standard GFCI (ground-fault circut interrupter) outlets.

Materials. Such a project is going to necessitate hearty, all-weather materials; materials that can be hosed down to keep cleanup an easy task. Concrete, stainless steel and stone are the preferred materials for an outdoor kitchen project. Concrete can be stained and covered with veneers to make appealing and durable floors and walls. The best surface materials for countertops and eating areas are granite, slate, stainless steel. If installing cabinets rather than stainless steel drawers, use rot-resistant hard wood like teak or cedar.

Layout. The outdoor cooking space should have easy access to the interior of the house to facilitate shuttling food and supplies back and forth. Another reason to keep the outdoor kitchen adjacent to the home is to tie into the utilities infrastructure already laid in the home. Running discreet gas, electrical, and plumbing lines too far from the home’s existing lines can become prohibitively expensive.

An old adage states that “The kitchen is half the home.” When fiends and family gather at a home, no matter how comfortable and inviting the living room is, people tend to gather in and around the kitchen. With an outdoor kitchen, a homeowner can enrich their yard with sumptuous smells of cooking food, entertain several guests, create a superb gathering place, and all the while keep the house neat as a pin, because all of the dirty work of cooking goes on outside. An outdoor kitchen can create an attractive, thorough and useful arrangement of typical outdoor summertime amenities, including a sink, bar, and refrigerator.