Design Your Dream Outdoor Kitchen

Benefits of Your Outdoor Kitchen

Nothing seems to compare with eating and dining outdoors. The slight breeze, the wonderful landscape, the sights, sounds, and aromas of food being prepared in your outdoor kitchen takes outdoor living to a whole new level. There is nothing like an outdoor kitchen to complete your beautiful outdoor escape.

Imagine being outdoors when the house is hot, a gentle breeze is blowing, and you are heating up your grill while reaching for that perfectly chilled bottle of wine from your wine refrigerator and chopping fresh greens with your friend for the delicious Caesar salad. The meat has marinated and is ready to be grilled, the fresh homemade focaccia has been baked to perfection, and you are just waiting for the foil-baked potatoes and grilled asparagus to get done for dinner to be served!

Everything you need is at close reach without the trouble of running between the kitchen and back outdoors dozens of times during meal preparation. People still gather in the kitchen while their hosts are cooking, but gathering outside around the dining bar watching dinner being sublimely prepped and served puts a whole new spin on dining outdoors!

Outdoor Kitchen Design Inspiration

Designing your dream outdoor kitchen is an easy and enjoyable task with the Villa Terrazza outdoor living design team.  They have designed and installed countless outdoor kitchens throughout Sonoma, Napa, and Marin counties. You can start by using our free outdoor kitchen design tool and thinking over the ideas and questions we pose below.

How Do You Envision Using Your Outdoor Kitchen?

Starting with ultimately how you want to use your outdoor kitchen leads us in the correct direction. Do you want to use your outdoor kitchen mainly for family or do you envision large groups of friends entertaining in your outdoor kitchen? Your family’s cooking and entertaining requirements set the pace for what size, appliances, and amenities are important when we are designing your outdoor kitchen with you.

Another fact to take into account is how often you will be using your outdoor kitchen. Will your outdoor kitchen be used once in a while, or will you be using your outdoor kitchen daily? Will your outdoor kitchen be used only in spring through fall or year-round? You might want a heater above it! The latest trends in outdoor kitchens have many luxury components aside from the traditional built-in barbeque, we’ve installed pizza ovens, smokers, salamanders, outdoor refrigeration, outdoor storage, warming ovens, and more!

What Are Your Space Parameters?

Space parameters give us a good idea of what layouts are possible and what are the important components to include if space is limited. Even a small backyard can have an outdoor kitchen installed; it’s knowing how to make the best use of space that allows us to build in many different situations and deliver a beautiful and functional outdoor kitchen to meet your needs.

The potential location for your outdoor kitchen will determine how we create a layout you will love. Are we installing an outdoor kitchen on an enclosed deck or a patio, or will we be creating a completely new area for your outdoor kitchen?  Where are the prevailing winds from? How do we get shade over it so it can be used on a hot day? Is there a pool nearby?

What Appliances Do You Want in Your Outdoor Kitchen?

Answering this question comes down to what kitchen functions you need in your outdoor kitchen.  Minimally, even in a small space, you want a sink, prepping area, barbeque/grill, and some storage. But if your family loves pizza above all else, then working around wants and needs is where we go next. Even a small outdoor kitchen can accommodate a pizza oven.

If you mainly grill and only need a burner, then that lets us know what to focus on with your outdoor kitchen build. Will people gather around the grill? Perhaps we need a grill without a hood. Like Korean BBQ or fajitas? An outdoor griddle enables stir-fry or seared meats. Feeding a crowd? Don’t forget the warming drawer!   So, it’s thinking about how you want to cook, what you want to cook, and who you will cook for that directs your attention to what appliances are most important for your outdoor kitchen.  The Pros at Villa Terrazza will help you prioritize and tailor the design to your lifestyle!

If you have a young and growing family a wine cooler might not be that important, but refrigeration would be critical so you and the children aren’t making endless runs to the kitchen on hot days for something cool to drink. Especially when kids are wet from the pool! Our drawer refrigerators have locks available, so you can have a ‘kid drawer’ and an adult drawer’! At Villa Terrazza, we take you through a few lifestyle questions that gives us so much information while letting us refine a design that will have you loving your outdoor kitchen!

Where Do You Want to Locate Your Outdoor Kitchen?

Location is key when it comes to your outdoor cooking and dining experience. Keep in mind in the Wine Country or the Bay Area, we get hot days and cool evenings.  If you have a completely sunny backyard with no trees, then building in shade would be a factor, or at least using well-placed umbrellas for the heat of the day. Likewise, if your backyard has a lot of trees you might want to incorporate them into the design and then think of how to keep people warm with radiant heaters or a seating group anchored by a gas firepit when the area becomes very shaded, and the temperatures drop in the evening.

If you want to use your outdoor kitchen year-round you might want to think of an enclosed space for our outdoor kitchen with lots of windows and perhaps an opening wall system like NanaWall, or simply a large sliding glass door. If you live in one of the warmer areas of the San Francisco metro area, you’ll want to install ceiling fans to move the air on hot days, plus they lend a great designer touch to an outdoor kitchen.

Any location can be created with inspiration to be an ideal place for your outdoor kitchen. A little ingenuity and good design sense will make the most of any useable area and create a unique and beautiful outdoor kitchen that will add value to your home and be the focal point of your outdoor experience.

What Is Your Design Style?

How would describe the interior design of your home? Are you a minimalist, do you tend to like an elegant look, do you go for a more traditional look, or would you consider your design style to be more formal, is an environmentally friendly look with recycled materials your design style?

Design flows when it matches both its setting and also the style in which your home is decorated. Also taking into account the look, feel, and style of your home’s exterior is important. If you have a traditional brick home that leans towards formal with the interior design having an island look for your outdoor kitchen wouldn’t be the best match. You could incorporate island elements but for the best design flow, you would want to follow the design of both the interior and exterior of your home when possible.

Do You Want A Bar Island for Socializing?

In one of our previous sections, we asked about the main intent for your outdoor kitchen, whether it is mainly family-oriented or for entertaining, or both. If entertaining is one of your main purposes in building an outdoor kitchen then a bar island for socializing is something you might want to add to your outdoor kitchen design.

Where people gather, they come together. Participating or watching a wonderful meal being prepared is the same reason some restaurants have some of their kitchen area being able to be observed by their guests. It creates a more engaging experience and a level of intimacy with the food preparation that enhances the entire experience. The same is true for those of us with outdoor kitchens, people love being involved and seeing a wonderful meal prepped and coming together, the process creates both dialogue and participation.

What Type of Countertops Do You Want?

When leading you through choosing the best countertops we come at this from a few different angles.  First, how stain-resistant is the material? We like Dekton because it is essentially sheet porcelain, and does not absorb grease or red wine. Think about how hot will the countertop get if it is in sunlight? Dark colors get hotter than lighter ones. Some of them can fry an egg!  Granite and stone are always popular but must be sealed regularly so they don’t stain. Some folks like concrete countertops, but we are not fans due to their porosity – it gets grease stains! Your countertop fabricator can advise you on their favorites for outdoor use.

After you decide on the type of countertops you want, then take into account what color you want your countertops to be next. We usually suggest that you choose a countertop color that compliments your color scheme in the home’s exterior or accents. Look at retaining walls, pavers and hardscapes, pool coping and plantings for color guidance. Especially if your outdoor kitchen is on a smaller size keeping to light colors will make it look more expansive.

Storage, Shelving & Beverages

What type of shelving, storage, and beverage storage do you need? Pull-out shelving is always popular, but our favorite is simply lots of drawers so it’s easy to get at the items at the rear of the cabinet! If you have the space, it is great to have your food storage and beverage storage outside to minimize trips to the kitchen. For people with wood-fired pizza ovens, we can even include storage for firewood so it is handy to stoke the pizza oven’s fire. So, we circle back to purpose, size, and what you cook the most to help you decide what storage, shelving, and beverage storage are best.

Many of our customers include a wine cooler and temperature-controlled wine storage in their outdoor kitchen. If you have small children, an outdoor refrigerator of their own with a freezer is great for summertime treats and minimizing trips into the house for them and their friends.

This article is the first in a series about designing your outdoor kitchen. Our next article will lead you through all the appliance and amenity choices that are available to create the outdoor kitchen of your dreams!