The Ultimate Guide to An Outdoor Kitchen of Your Dream

It’s hard to imagine a country house or cottage without an outdoor kitchen. It is in this kitchen gather with family and friends to enjoy the summer air and a break from worldly cares.

Elegant outdoor kitchens in the countryside, projects, and photos of which will surprise everyone have become commonplace and are often installed on suburban residential plots and cottages. Such structures can be made to order through construction firms, although this aspect can be handled independently, using ready-made projects and photos.

Varieties of outdoor kitchens

Before constructing an outdoor kitchen, it is necessary to decide whether this construction will be a separate structure or an extension of the house itself. Modern kitchens come in two basic types, that is, open or closed construction. Where open design is very similar to a gazebo or terrace, which is located separately or adjacent to the house.

The main elements of an open structure will be the roof or canopy, and 1-3 walls, this structure is built of wood and less often of stone. Its unique feature is a sense of space and freedom, a feeling of unity with the natural environment.

Outdoor kitchens can be a closed type. This structure is a separate small house. House of the closed type has a full-fledged roof and walls with windows and doors.

The main advantage of the closed house is its comfortable design, protected from the rain and the bright sun. In summer, the structure is used both as a kitchen and as a separate house for guests. This construction is erected from such material as brick, foam block, or cinder block, and for internal finishing here is used batten, gypsum board, and sometimes plywood.

Varieties:

Construction made of wooden beams and logs
Frame metal
Brick and stone structure
Of different materials, that is brick and metal, wood and brick, etc.

The main advantages

Cooking food outdoors will inspire literally everyone. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the outdoor kitchen gazebo become a celebration of nature, it will be wonderful. Such a magical kitchen will bring a lot of pleasant moments of devouring food and socializing with friends and relatives. Outdoor kitchens work even in winter if they are carefully insulated.

Aspects of choosing a location

Before the construction of the outdoor kitchen, it is required to intelligently and rationally make a project of this structure. This construction is considered a serious object and here it is necessary to know the subtleties of this type of kitchen arrangement. It is required to carefully and competently calculate and plan the stages of construction. The choice of location requires taking into account the peculiarities of such construction.

The main criterion for selecting a site for the location of the kitchen is the convenience of communication. These communications are conducted from the house, so the kitchen and the house itself will be located next to each other. Such communications will be a gas pipeline, water supply with drainage, sewerage, electricity.

It is required to place the structure away from the toilet, compost pit, and other places where eating and cooking will not be a pleasant experience. It is recommended to place away from the roadway, where there will be a lot of dust, noise, and exhaust fumes. It is desirable to place the kitchen away from flammable objects, this distance should be 10 meters or more.

It is recommended to place the windows to the northeast, it will protect you from the sun’s rays and keep you cool on hot days. It is also possible to arrange a cellar under the outdoor kitchen, it is practical and functional.

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Stages of construction

Before the construction, a competent and clear construction project is drawn up, where the positioning on the plot is decided. It is necessary to think in advance about the size of the structure and the location of windows and doors, taking into account the location of water and gas pipes.
The site itself should be leveled and, if necessary, water and sewage pipes should be laid.
If you build an open building, then be sure to have a slope required for the drainage of water after rain.
Now that the site is ready, the excavation for the open kitchen is dug to a depth of 15 cm or more. Such excavation is made over the entire area of the structure, and then it is filled with a special cushion of sand, which should be thoroughly compacted. Then, be sure to conduct paving of the future kitchen, for this purpose, a board or tile is used, which is paved directly on the cushion of sand, it is done simply and quickly.
Only now the foundation is prepared, it can be a columnar, plate, or strip foundation. Most often, it is made of a strip foundation, located around the perimeter of the kitchen. To make the columnar foundation, the soil is excavated to a depth of 50 cm, and inside the future kitchen, a pit is dug 15 cm deep. Now it is required to make a cushion of sand and lay a layer of crushed stone on top, after which everything is poured with a standard cement mortar.
For the outdoor kitchen, a columnar foundation is often arranged, for this purpose, 4 columns are made in the corners of the structure, sunk 50 cm or more. Then, a general framework of wooden beams or logs is arranged. Also, this structure can be made of bricks and stone, although these materials require the device of a strip solid foundation.
The walls of the kitchen are built of stone or brick. You can also make a frame of metal or wooden beams. Then, they need to be covered from the outside and inside with clapboard or special boards. If wood finishing is used, it is required to be treated with special solutions to protect against the effects of moisture, it is better to do it annually.
For the kitchen arrange a one-slope, two-slope or flat roof, although it is better to make it a two-slope. Such a design with two slopes will be reliable and simple, and it looks very aesthetically pleasing. It uses a roof of the asbestos-cement sheet, metal, or polycarbonate, and then from below the roof is sheathed with plasterboard and boards.

Arrangement of the outdoor kitchen

An outdoor kitchen is equipped with a special stove for cooking food, it may be a wood stove, gas stove, or electric. If there is a barbecue, you should choose in advance the location of the oven, where the products will be cooked on coals.

Here it is required to think necessarily fire safety measures in general. It is not recommended to place flammable objects near the stove, and the cutting table should be installed near the stove at a safe distance. Near the kitchen units, drawers for utensils and a common small sink, and their location can be seen in the photo projects of this structure.

A special stove, sink, and tables should be arranged compactly and conveniently, so they do not interfere with people in the recreation area. In such a recreation area usually set a table, chairs, and armchairs, and if space allows, and a sofa.

For the outdoor kitchen of the is usually used wicker furniture or plastic, which are best suited here.

The next important aspect of the arrangement of the outdoor kitchen is the choice of lighting, for the working area and the seating area require separate comfortable lighting. Fixtures need to be chosen, taking into account their work in normal outdoor conditions, you can choose an economical option by installing lamps with solar panels.

If the outdoor kitchen is a full-fledged traditional wood-fired stove, it is necessary to think about the aspects of smoke removal. Often you can install both a stove and an oven, so you can please your family and guests with the usual dishes and at the same time cook a fragrant kebab. It is desirable to have all the necessary communications at once, which will make life easier for the owners.

Interior decoration

For the kitchen to look beautiful and stylish it is recommended to arrange soft cushions on the chairs and elegant plaids on the sofa. It is desirable to buy all the kitchen equipment in a single overall style so that this room will look more elegant. The finishing here should be natural, it is better to use natural stone and wood.

And it is desirable to make the floor tiles, it can be ceramic or porcelain. It is important to consider that the main area will be the stove and oven, followed by the sink and the work surface for cooking. The traditional style of such a cottage kitchen is a rustic setting, for which clay dishes and textiles are used. Artistic tone and family-style will make a large Russian samovar, located on the dining wide table.

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It is recommended to install here only wooden furniture, and it is better to do the finishing with a material such as wood. If this kitchen is built and equipped competently, it is possible to cook dishes there in the spring, summer, and autumn, as well as in the winters, if they will be warm.

To decorate the interior, you can use:

Earthenware
Textiles
Carved crafts and toys
Uniform style furniture
Living plants
Products of forging
Stone
Ceramics

Conclusion

Arrangement of the outdoor kitchen is not difficult, but it is better to entrust such construction to professionals if there is no experience and knowledge. Design solutions for this structure is a lot, choosing the best option for yourself, the kitchen will be a long time to please its owners.

Here you should immediately choose the type of area structure, it is important to choose the right type of foundation and material for the walls, the type of roof and roofing materials, which can be very different.