Grilling and entertaining outdoors has changed in the past ten years. Gone are the days when the gas grill stood alone on a patio, while endless trips to the kitchen were required for food preparation, condiments, beverages and side-dishes.
Today, seasonal entertaining is all about the outdoor kitchen, and incorporating a design that allows families to expand their living space. Given our beautiful (but short) Spring and Summer seasons in Alberta, Canada homeowners are inspired to get outside, and optimize their enjoyment of their home and natural environment
A professionally designed outdoor kitchen provides all the comforts and gourmet appliances, tools and amenities needed, to create memories with family and friends.
There are many elements to consider, if you have started to formulate a creative vision for your outdoor space. In this article, we’ll review some of the essential design elements, architectural features and landscape design strategies that help create an enjoyable outdoor kitchen and socially embracing patio area.
Let’s Talk About Your Entertaining and Culinary Style
The plan for an outdoor kitchen starts with a personal evaluation of the type of foods that you want to prepare. Do you enjoy cooking smoked meat? Grilling fish? Do you plan to cook just lunch and dinners outdoors, or will your family enjoy preparing and eating breakfast on the patio too? These questions will help identify the essential tools and spaces you will need to incorporate into your design.
Families can add the following appliances to their outdoor kitchen, for food preparation:
- Gas grill
- Countertop and preparation area
- Butcher’s block area
- Commercial skillet
- Deep fryer
- Freezer and ice maker
- Refrigerator
- Wine cooler
- Stone pizza and bread oven
- Meat smoker
The pizza or bread making oven designed as a rustic stone feature adjacent to the outdoor kitchen is an outdoor design trend we hope remains for a long time. The California inspired wood burning stove offers so many practical applications for dining outdoors.
From creating fresh pizza, to desserts or keeping leftovers warm while entertaining, the smell of the real wood creates a beautiful ambiance that everyone enjoys on the patio. And don’t forget the S’mores.
Seating and Fire Elements
The next step in the outdoor kitchen design process, is to visualize the average number of guests that you will be entertaining in the space. When everyone gathers together, how many seats will you require? How much space will be needed to install outdoor furniture and what types of seating arrangements do you want to provide?
When designing a new patio with an outdoor kitchen, many residential home owners create vignettes or different seating areas for specific purposes. The main seating area may be adjacent to the outdoor kitchen for group dining and food service. There can be supplemental seating around the bar, in the form of comfortable stools.
Upholstered outdoor furnishings such as couches and loveseats may be incorporated with side tables to create comfortable conversation areas (usually adjacent to gardens and water features for relaxation).
Some families crave the experience of gathering around a traditional campfire. Today, that could mean one of hundreds of fire pit designs, from contemporary fire bowls located around the pool or spa, to paved circular fire pits (recessed or above ground) with cushioned seating.
Think about how excited your friends and family would be, to enjoy an authentic outdoor fire (without having to sit in an uncomfortable camp chair). They can also be designed with partial overhead coverage, to offer shelter during inclement weather conditions.
Electrical access points are an important part of the design, and outdoor ceiling fans, mist and humidifier devices and heaters can all help to make the patio space more comfort, no matter how high or low the temperature gets. And don’t forget solar path lights and accent low-voltage lighting that create ambiance and the additional safety of well-lit walkways.
Heating and Lighting
One thing we cannot predict living in Alberta, is how quickly the weather can change from seasonably warm to cold and breezy. But in fair weather, entertaining does not have to stop simply because the sun went down. With intelligent heating and lighting design considerations, you can continue to enjoy your patio and outdoor kitchen in comfort, well into the evening.
Reducing the cost of standard electrical outlets, more residential home owners are investing in solar energy panels. They can be discreetly added to the roof of a gazebo or installed as panels near a treeline, or on the backside facing roof of a home.
Today, solar panels are far more advanced, lightweight and less expensive than many homeowners anticipate, and they provide a tremendous cost saving when it comes to heating a pool, whirlpool or spa, and powering exterior low-voltage accent or safety and path lighting.
Patio heaters can be rudimentary and rugged, or elegant and contemporary in design, depending on the application and desired aesthetic. But for maximum utility of your new outdoor space, we strongly recommend incorporating them into your design to allow full use of your patio area in all three seasons.
Plumbing for Outdoor Sink and Bar Designs
What would an outdoor kitchen be, without a sink with running filtered water to watch vegetables, fruits and other foods in? If you are thinking about washing dishes outside, one of the things we are receiving more requests for is a dishwasher installation in the outdoor kitchen. Which makes perfect sense, if you are entertaining.
Having a poolside bar is the ultimate luxury for entertaining. Remember that an ice maker is an essential in the bar area for beverages and will require a filtered water installation. Lighting around the outdoor bar area can be traditional or colored to theme if the client wants to create something fun and unique.
Outdoor dishwashers are practical particularly for residential home owners who want to have a full wet bar outside on the patio area. With smart storage space for glassware, dishes and utensils under the bar or built into the outdoor kitchen counter surface, you can eliminate the need for guests to run back and forth for supplies.
Ask any real estate professional about the desirability and return on investment that the installation of an outdoor kitchen can provide homeowners. And the most important thing is the convenience, comforts and entertainment value that they provide families who love to spend their time outdoors. Contact us to view our portfolio of work and design inspirations.