Who doesn’t love spending a warm summer
night
surrounded by friends and family, sipping drinks as dinner
sizzles on the grill? Many of us have dreamed of having the
perfect outdoor kitchen to make cooking and entertaining outdoors
easier. Now there’s a way to make that dream a reality.
Even in New Jersey, where spring and summer merge into a barely
three-month-long window, cooking and dining outside have enormous
appeal.
Amenities for outdoor rooms include top-of-the-line appliances,
portable fireplaces, seating that rivals interior furnishings
for comfort and visual appeal, garden structures from gazebos
to antique barns and even carpets, and sound systems designed
for backyard use. Confronted by all these possibilities, what
is a homeowner to do? Where should you begin?
Creating the perfect outdoor space takes a bit of ingenuity
and smart planning. Award-winning kitchen designer Deborah
Krasner can help you achieve that goal with these ideas from
her book, The New Outdoor Kitchen: Cooking Up a Kitchen for
the Way You Live and Play.
Perfect Planning
Define your space. Consider the following: How do you intend to use your outdoor kitchen? Are you going to use it year-round, during the week as well as on weekends? The more ambitious your cooking, the more space you'll need for equipment, preparation, and that other critical comfort component: a place to hang out while you wait for your meal.
Here, a bluestone patio leads to a screened porch with extra seating. The sheltered kitchen space, opposite, provides indoor-grade cabinetry and appliances.
Think Ahead
Prioritize your needs. Dream fully and plan efficiently. Remember, an outdoor space does not exist in a vacuum. It works best if it relates to the shape of your yard or garden, and your home. It should reflect and relate back in terms of style, proportion, scale, and design. Everything doesn't have to be done at once, but plan for electric, natural gas, and water lines, as well as lighting. If you've thought ahead, you'll be able to step up to an outdoor sink, a built-in gas grill, and an outdoor refrigerator several years later without having to, for example, rip out your flagstone patio. Portable items, such this sink, left, are also an option and eliminate the need for plumbing lines. They are meant for hand washing and cleaning utensils, and some models hold their own waste water.
The Walls Around Us
Your outdoor kitchen can have actual walls, either halfway up
to a roof or all the way, or it can have "walls" that
are suggestions of boundaries, made by planting hedges, building
stone walls, setting a row of plants in pots along the perimeter,
or constructing raised beds. In this sense, a wall is anything
that defines the outer edge of the kitchen area. However achieved,
it is important to have "walls" of some kind to mark
the edges of the space and to announce transition from "inside" the
outdoor kitchen to the yard. The L-shaped space below has a built-in
grill set away from the dining area and house to minimize smoke.
The matching brick floor helps define and unify the area..
Indoor/Outdoor Space
Convenience is the biggest advantage of the indoor/outdoor scenario,
because it will be much simpler (and less expensive). Keep the
scale consistent, choose similar materials and style elements,
and use the roof line of the house as your guide. The well-conceived
kitchen in the background functions as a shaded food-preparation
area open to the grill and dining area in good weather, yet can
be closed and used as an interior kitchen when the weather is
inhospitable. Because the kitchen is completely protected from
the elements, the kitchen uses regular indoor equipment, but because
the linking double doors open wide to the patio the kitchen can
function for outdoor
`
Location, Location, Location
Check list for a good spot:
* level ground
* not too far from existing utilities
* big enough for your entertaining needs
* is not in the center of the yard, but tucked away
* has the exposure you prefer
* gives you a chance to improve a spot that needs attention
* has a nice view (If you have an imperfect location with a
fabulous vista, and you've got the budget to correct some of the
shortcomings, the view can trump all other considerations.)
`
Warming things up
Social fire refers to all the modern equivalents of gathering
around a campfire or hearth. Somewhere in our DNA there must be
a gene that attracts us to flickering flames, because sitting
around a fire makes us feel good. Today, we have a remarkable
number of ways to keep those beguiling home fires burning in our
own backyard. Fireplaces are one of the hottest backyard objects
of desire because they add such tremendous appeal to an outdoor
room. You can even cook in your wood-burning fireplace. Alternatively,
new outdoor gas fireplaces offer flames without smoke (or chimneys)
and come with different heating capacities.
In addition to a fire element to keep things cozy, take care to
ensure your outdoor space coordinates with your home. Above, the
furniture, planters and fireplace are all white, matching the
trim of the house, whereas the color of the weathered decking
mimics that of the cedar shakes
`
The New Outdoor Kitchen: Cooking Up a Kitchen for the Way You Live and Play, by Deborah Krasner (The Taunton Press, 2007). Reprinted by permission.
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