A Comprehensive Guide to Outdoor Kitchens: Design Considerations & More!

Outdoor kitchens can add a luxurious look to your home, as well as make it more convenient for entertaining guests and enjoying your property. But that’s not all outdoor kitchens offer. If you’ve been considering installing an outdoor kitchen in your home, The Plant Concierge has collected some design considerations that will certainly inspire you.

Here we’ve collected some great pointers to help you get started on planning for your backyard kitchen installation!

What Are the Benefits of Outdoor Kitchens?

Before diving into the details, we wanted to collect some of the top benefits of installing an outdoor kitchen on your property. With your new backyard kitchen, you’ll be able to:

Increase Your Home’s Value: When you work with The Plant Concierge to install your outdoor kitchen, all of its fixtures and design elements will be top of the line. With a luxury outdoor kitchen, you’ll be adding value to your home. All of the elements will be durable and long-lasting, meaning even if you don’t plan on selling your home in the future, you’ll still receive a great return on your investment.

Maximize Your Square Footage: Just like adding a deck or patio, installing an outdoor kitchen is one of the best ways to expand the usable square footage of your home/property. With your backyard kitchen, you can entertain large groups of friends and have parties that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. Additionally, your guests will be able to relax outdoors and enjoy your yard while you prepare meals. It’s also a great place to have family dinners when the weather is nice.

Keep Cooking Smells Outside: One downside of cooking indoors is that even with a quality overhead fan, cooking smells can linger for hours after a meal. However, when cooking outdoors this won’t be a problem. In the open air, cooking fish, spicy foods, and chargrilling burgers won’t be a problem.

Cook Healthier: Grilling meals can be a healthy alternative to frying foods or cooking other dishes that contain lots of oil. When you grill your food, the moisture stays inside making it taste better, and minimizing the use of cooking oils you need.

Increase Efficiency: When you cook outside, you can actually save on utility bills. This is because cooking inside causes your home to heat up, forcing the need to use the AC, especially on hotter summer days. However, by cooking outside that heat will dissipate so you can avoid running your HVAC system on overtime.

Have Fun While Cooking: Cooking in the kitchen day in and day out can seem a little repetitive. But with an outdoor kitchen, you’ll be able to have a new space to cook, as well as top-of-the-line appliances. You may even be able to install things in your outdoor kitchen that you couldn’t inside, like a wood-fired pizza oven or Big Green Egg for barbecuing.

Make Meal Preparation Easier: If you have a grill outside, you probably get tired of running back and forth while food is cooking and taking the meal inside to the kitchen table when you’re ready to eat. Thankfully, with outdoor kitchens, you’ll have all the appliances and seating necessary so sit back, relax, and enjoy your meal with everything easily at your disposal.

Cut Back on Ordering Out: Having an outdoor kitchen can inspire you to get more creative with your meals and cut back on ordering from your favorite restaurants. For example, if you’re a BBQ fan, you can learn how to smoke meat and grill your favorite cuts yourself rather than ordering from the restaurant down the road when you have a craving.

Spend Quality Time Outdoors: Having an outdoor kitchen and place to entertain guests gives you a great excuse to spend more quality time outdoors, enjoying your property to the fullest. You can spend a pleasant evening on the patio with friends and family, chatting while waiting for the food to finish, and gazing up at the stars. You might even want to install a fire pit to gather around once the meal is over.

Important Design Considerations for Your Outdoor Kitchen

When designing an outdoor kitchen, there are some important things to consider so you’ll be happy with the results. After all, you want an outdoor kitchen that will look great, last a long time, and suit you and your family’s lifestyle. A few things to consider are:

Materials: When designing an outdoor kitchen, taking into account the materials that will work best outside is essential. This is because they’ll be at the mercy of the elements. That’s why any material you use should be durable, moisture-resistant, as well as specially treated to minimize corrosion. This will make your outdoor kitchen last longer and will be easier to maintain.

Using Your Outdoor & Indoor Kitchens Together: Often, when cooking certain meals, you may need to use both your outdoor and indoor kitchen. So, it’s important to think about their location and make them easily accessible. Creating a clear path between your two kitchens will make it easy to go back and forth with plates, ingredients, and cooking utensils.

Choose a Design & Fixtures that Offer a Good Balance: Choosing elements for your outdoor kitchen that complement your home will create a sense of balance and help you maintain a luxurious setting both inside and out. You can use your home’s architecture as a starting point and create an outdoor kitchen that matches its design. Take into consideration things like the lines and details of your home’s architecture? Is it more contemporary or classic? Designing an outdoor kitchen that mimics these details will make for a more balanced look.

Integrate Your Outdoor Kitchen with Hardscape Features: If you already have an outdoor entertainment area, like a patio, balcony, or pool, try to design an outdoor kitchen that’s integrated with the spaces you already have. This can make things easier, as well as more inexpensive during the installation process.

Consider Where to Install Utilities: For an outdoor kitchen, you’ll need access to water, gas, and electricity, so making sure you install your utilities in the proper place is essential. You’ll want to install them in discreet places that are still easy to reach, however, you might need to get creative if you don’t have a wall or another place to easily install them. The best way to determine where to install utilities for an outdoor kitchen is to consult with an expert.

Adding Other Entertainment Features: If you want to get the most out of your outdoor kitchen, you’ll want to install more than just cooking appliances and a place to eat. Adding other entertainment features such as a television or stereo can be a great way to create an outdoor living space along with your kitchen. Just be sure that any electronics you do install remain well-protected from the elements.

Choose the Right Appliances: To make your outdoor kitchen easy to use and designed for your personal preferences, you’ll need to select the proper appliances. Mini appliances such as a wine fridge or small sink can make your outdoor kitchen easier to move around in. But if you’re a culinary connoisseur, you may want to consider installing a full-sized fridge and any other cooking equipment you’ll need, like a grill, smoker, etc.

Laying Out Your Space: The layout of your outdoor kitchen should be convenient and comfortable. This means designing something that’s functional as well as easy to move around in. For example, one of the best setups is to install a fridge, grill, and sink all within easy reach to create an efficient layout.

Install Outdoor Lighting: If you’ll be cooking outdoors after dark, you’ll need the proper lighting system to see what you’re doing. Be sure to install adequate lighting in food preparation and cooking areas, as well as dining and entertainment areas. For seating areas, you can use softer lighting but for places where you’ll be cooking and preparing food, brighter lights will be best.

Consider Maintenance: Do you have a lot of time for cleaning and maintenance? If not, then a more compact outdoor kitchen will serve you well. Keeping things simple and only installing the necessities, as well as investing in grease-resistant appliances will help make maintenance easy.

Contact us online today for outdoor kitchens and more!

If you’re ready to start designing your outdoor kitchen, The Plant Concierge can help. Contact us online today for more information or call (972) 243-1455. We also specialize in landscape installation, lawn care, tree service, and more.