Outdoor Kitchen

Outdoor kitchens can trace their origin to the humble weekend barbeque. In recent years that simple idea of grilling on the patio has blossomed into a fully fledged rethinking of the way we use our yards. The outdoor kitchen has become a way to tie indoors and outdoors together like never before and outdoor kitchens today are high-tech, high-style statements that bring the family together and serve as the backdrop for unforgettable good times.

Building the Perfect Outdoor Kitchen

While the outdoor or “backyard” kitchen has renewed many a homeowner’s love affair with their house there are nonetheless a number of potential pitfalls involved in building one that could derail the good times if you’re not careful. In this post we’ll look at 6 of those potential mistakes.

• Forgetting a proper grill jacket – Outdoor grills get hot. If you don’t install an insulated jacket around your grill you may wind up having Toronto fire-fighters over for dinner instead of your expected guests. The insulated grill jacket protects combustible materials near the grill from catching fire. It also has the added benefit of protecting your grill from corrosion.
• Putting indoor appliances outdoors – Not all appliances designed for the indoor kitchen are up to the challenge of the outdoor environment. You’ll save a lot of time, headaches and, most importantly, money by making sure the appliances you purchase for your new kitchen are rated for the outdoors.
• Creating cut-outs before selecting appliances – If you design and build your outdoor kitchen before you’ve selected your appliances there’s a good chance the cut-outs you created for them won’t be exact fits. Make sure you know the exact dimensions of your new appliances before the construction process starts.
• Not leaving enough counter space – Some homeowners will get so caught up in making space for all the latest appliances that they forget to allow adequate counter space for food prep, cooking and entertaining. When designing your new backyard kitchen use your indoor kitchen as a starting point for how much counter space will work for you.
• Installing hot and cold side by side – It’s not uncommon for folks to place the grill right next to the refrigerator. It’s also not uncommon to see these same folks tearing things apart later on to create separation between the two. The heat given off by the grill can overwhelm the refrigerator’s ability to keep up. Leave a generous space between the two and fill it with some of that counter space we mentioned above.
• Expecting to use space under the sink or grill – All too often an outdoor kitchen design calls for cabinets beneath the grill or sink. What’s forgotten is that the sink requires plumbing and a gas grill will require gas lines coming up from the ground. These supply lines are not compatible with standard cabinet design and you may have to either rethink and rebuild the cabinets to fit the smaller space or abandon those cabinets altogether.

If there’s one mantra that should be on the minds of everyone designing a backyard kitchen it’s this: “Think it through”. The outdoor kitchen makes unique demands on appliances and materials so what worked indoors may very well fail outdoors. Careful planning, thoughtful selection of appliances and materials and an emphasis on safety are the things that should guide the design process.

There are few other projects our designers and craftsmen get as excited about as the chance to create a beautiful new outdoor kitchen environment for our clients. Don’t let your backyard kitchen fall victim to poor planning or construction, call the company more Toronto homeowners trust for all their landscaping, renovation and home addition needs; Toronto Custom Decks.

When some folks hear the term ‘outdoor kitchen’ they think a grille and a couple of patio chairs. There was a time in the not-too-distant past when they would have been right but today outdoor kitchens have taken the whole concept of outdoor entertaining to previously unimagined levels with architects, landscape designers and even appliance manufacturers lending their skills and resources to the movement.

Making Sure Your Outdoor Kitchen is the Best it can be

Today’s outdoor kitchens are extensions of the home that bring the interior and exterior elements of your house and property together to create one seamless environment. They’re so far removed from the day of the simple backyard grille as to be from a different conceptual universe. Today you can prepare, cook and serve entire gourmet meals outdoors with a full complement of appliances to support your efforts and a full array of home entertainment devices to help create atmosphere and enhance the overall experience.

Some key elements of any successful outdoor kitchen today include:

• The grille – While the old days of rolling the propane grille out of the garage twice a year are gone the grille nonetheless still occupies a central role in any outdoor kitchen design. Even if you opt to include a full gas stove/oven you’ll still want a grille as well to handle barbeque items. Before purchasing the grille for your backyard kitchen carefully consider how many people you’re likely to be entertaining so you get a grille that can handle the crush.
• Refrigerator – No backyard kitchen should be without a refrigerator. The more people you intend to entertain the larger it should be so that you’re not wearing yourself out running into the house all the time for drinks and desserts. If you’ve done your food prep in the house you can transfer that to the outdoor refrigerator before everyone arrives and save yourself more trips later. And it’s always good to have a few chilled bottles of wine at hand.
• Bar – The bar area is the fourth pillar of your outdoor kitchen space along with the cooking area, the main seating area and the dining table. Give the folks at the bar a lovely view of the pool or your beautifully landscaped gardens and watch them linger contentedly while you finish preparing the meal.
• Sink and electricity – Don’t underestimate the value of running water in your new backyard kitchen. Not only will it make cooking easier but it will also make for a much easier cleanup at the end of the night. Likewise having electrical outlets sprinkled about the backyard kitchen area will make food prep easier and open up lighting and entertainment possibilities; all without having to run extension cords from the house.
• Fireplace – More and more homeowners are opting to include a fireplace in their backyard kitchen area. As the evening wanes and folks begin to settle down after eating there’s nothing like getting a fire going to generate a cosy atmosphere.

The backyard kitchen is no longer constrained by anything other than imagination and budget. These modern entertainment plazas embody all that is best about contemporary living and their appeal transcends all boundaries of age, culture, background and taste.

Toronto Custom Decks is the area’s leading outdoor kitchen design and construction resource. With over a decade of experience in all aspects of custom deck design, landscaping and home additions as well we can create a backyard kitchen for you that will easily exceed your wildest expectations. Call us today on 647-878-8780 to learn more about outdoor kitchens and how they can elevate your Toronto home from the mundane to the spectacular.