While you might like the idea of having an outdoor kitchen where you can enjoy a great meal and the outdoors at the same time, not everyone has the same idea for an outdoor kitchen in their minds. Because of this, it’s important that you really think about what you want to include in your outdoor kitchen rather than basing your decisions off of what someone else has done or what a designer might suggest for you.
To help you in making these all-important choices, here are three features you might want to include in your custom outdoor kitchen.
Protection From The Elements
Depending on where in the world you live, you may need to first think about how you’re going to protect your outdoor kitchen from the elements. Especially if you live in a place that has some extreme weather—be it harsh summer, cold winters, or rainy weather—you’ll want to do everything you can to keep that weather out of your outdoor kitchen so that you can enjoy that space as much as possible.
For some people, you might need to create some barrier walls around your cooking and eating space as a form of protection. In other situations, adding fans or heaters can help make the temperature more bearable and encourage you to spend more time outside. And for almost all outdoor kitchens, having some kind of covering to protect from the sun and rain is going to be vital.
A Bar Area
With an outdoor kitchen, one of the main reasons people choose to build this onto their property is for the purpose of entertaining. And when you’re entertaining, you’re going to want to make it easy for everyone to have a good time with a drink in their hand.
Knowing this, you may want to have a bar area in your outdoor kitchen. Not only could including a bar area give you a designated space for you to store and mix the drinks you prefer to enjoy together, but it can also give you additional seating options and help everyone feel like they can mix and mingle together while food and drinks are being prepared.
Cooking Options You’ll Actually Use
If you’re planning on making your outdoor kitchen essentially the same as your indoor kitchen, there’s really no point in going through all the trouble of building a new outdoor kitchen. What you should be thinking about is what cooking options you want to use that you can’t do inside of your home.
For most people, this might include things like a woodfire pizza oven, a smoker, a grill, and more. But before you add these features, think long and hard about how often you’d actually use them and if having them would be worth it to you.
If you’re set on creating a custom outdoor kitchen at your house, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you pick the right features to include in this space.
