Outdoor Kitchens

Outdoor kitchens allow you to bring the inside outside.  A kitchen can consist of anything from a grill and some counter space to a covered area with a wet bar, pizza oven, and cook top.  When designing an outdoor cooking area, I like to consider how many people will be using it, city ordinances, and (perhaps most importantly) how easily it can maintained. 

Design Considerations :

1.  Keeping it close:  Keeping it close to the house allows for easy transportation of materials between the house and the outdoor kitchen.

2. Location of Utilities:  Where are they and how far do they extend away from the house. 

3.  Work Triangle: Thinking about the spatial organization between the cooking area, food storage area, and clean up area.

4.  Space for guests:  How many people are you going to entertain?

5.  Circulation:  Do not allow major foot traffic to intersect the primary work areas.  The work aisle for the outdoor kitchen should be a minimum of 48”.

6.  Functional Areas of an Outdoor Kitchen:

·       Hot Zones: Grills, Cooktops, and Pizza Ovens

·       Cold Zones: Fridges, Freezers, Wine Chillers, and Kegerators

·       Wet Zones: Sinks and Ice Reserviors

·       Dry Zones: Storage, Prep Areas/Counters

7. Counter Space Recommendations:

·       Small Outdoor Kitchen: Grill, cooktop, sink, and storage adding up to about 10 Linear Feet.  36” of useable countertop and should be no less than 24” Deep.

·       Medium Outdoor Kitchen:  Grill, cooktop, sink, storage, and fridge adding up to about 13 Linear Feet.  48” of useable countertop is recommended and should be no less than 24” Deep.

·       Large Outdoor Kitchen:  All amenities (what can you imagine) and can total more than 20 Linear Feet.  At least of 156” of useable countertop is recommended.

8. Landing areas to left and right of stoves, sinks, and other elements should provide plenty of space.  This is a design faux pas that I see a lot in outdoor kitchen designs.

Things to consider including in your Outdoor Kitchen:

1. Pizza Oven

2.  BBQ Smoker

3. Sink

4.  Refrigerators

5.  Prep Space

6. Wine Cooler

7.  Kegerators

8.  Covering with a roof or an arbor

9.  Wood storage for the pizza oven

10.  Counter top material.