Designing Your Own Luxe Outdoor Kitchen

Open-plan homes with expansive ceilings are the height of the residential market. Most new home buyers want wide open spaces inside the home and a living room lifestyle that expands into the kitchen, den, and staircase. It's no surprise that this trend has evolved further into the embrace of outdoor living.

Outdoor living is currently the hottest trend in residential real estate. Luxury patios and lofted decks are now home to a variety of outdoor lifestyle room designs. Extending your indoor rooms into the backyard is the central theme of outdoor living. After all, what ceiling is more expansive than the open sky? What background image is more vivid than real world? Smart technology, automatic blinds, and pavilion tent make the indoor-outdoor lifestyle smoother than ever before.

Luxury outdoor kitchens are among the most popular renovations to transform your back deck or patio. Cooking outdoors can be so much more than a barbeque, especially if you're already a practiced home chef. Whether you want to host unforgettable family holidays or the hottest backyard block parties in the neighborhood, an outdoor kitchen means you can cook the food and rock with the guests in the fresh air.

Let's dive right into designing the ideal luxe outdoor kitchen for your home, lifestyle, and backyard space.

The Size, Shape, and Foundation of Your Deck

First, let's talk about where you can build an outdoor kitchen. Remember that your luxe kitchen can be as large or small as you want. You can have sprawling countertops or a sleekly hidden cooktop and fridge ensemble. Your ultimate options will be defined by your home and the shape of your backyard space. If you already have a deck, it should be checked and reinforced before the kitchen is installed. If you have a patio, you may need to dig into it to run the electric and plumbing lines. You can also build a custom deck to accommodate your new vision for an outdoor kitchen and social area.

Consider the size of the space you're working with and how your kitchen will flow naturally from the back of your house. Right now, large plate windows and double doors are popular to make the indoor and outdoor space transition smoothly.

The Luxe Kitchen Features You Like Best

Once you have an idea of your space and building potential, visualize your dream kitchen on the deck. A luxe outdoor kitchen can include anything you want it to. You can build the entertainer kitchen of your dreams surrounded by granite countertops and a cooking-show-worthy set of appliances. Maybe you dream of rakishly roasting kebabs on an open-flame grill with the highest possible tech barbecue tools and a fridge of fresh ingredients.

Many dream of a more rustic luxury outdoor kitchen with a brick hearth and pizza oven built right next to a sleek glass-top stove. You can also build-in kitchen gadgets and appliances like a slow cooker, air fryer, griddle, or mixer arm.

Place Your Outdoor Kitchen Sink

The location of your sink is as important as your stove. This is where much outdoor cooking takes place from washing vegetables to washing up after. Cool drinks may come from it's filtered faucet and backyard scrapes may even be treated at this important location. Outdoor kitchens are ideal for deeper sinks that can get a lot done. You can also design more than one outdoor sink - one for heavy-duty sink work and a shallow bar sink for quick water use when prepping ingredients or filling a drinking glass.

Right now, outstanding sink materials and statement faucets are a popular choice that can be reflected in your luxe outdoor kitchen design.

Your Countertops and Cooking Surfaces

Now decide the overall shape of your outdoor kitchen using prep surfaces and countertops. The best starting point is with your counters against your house wall. Extending your outdoor kitchen from the house simplifies utility lines and gives you a reference point to start you kitchen's footprint on the deck.

Consider what shape of kitchen you want. 

• Broken Ring
• Horseshoe
• Linear
• Parallel
• Island Placement

Once you decide the shape, determine what you want to do with your countertops and prep surfaces. Do you want floating counters suspended between cooking surfaces and the sink? Or would you rather lower cabinetry for storage and more hidden appliances?

Consider the shape and size of You can split your countertops for a parallel kitchen or form a broken ring to surround yourself with the outdoor kitchen design. If you want an island, decide how its position can enhance your kitchen's natural flow.

What You Can Build in Brick

Many outdoor kitchens feature pizza ovens, which opens the door to brick fireplace foundation designs. If you want a more rustic and traditional outdoor kitchen, consider the joy of a large warm hearth extending from an outdoor fireplace.  Above the fireplace is a brick oven for pizzas and the heat warms the rest of your outdoor kitchen, even when enjoying crisp winter nights.

Expanding to Outdoor Dining and Lounge Space

Most outdoor kitchens are designed adjacent to outdoor dining and deck lounges. Consider how your kitchen will flow naturally from cooking to dining and backyard events. Consider how the indoor kitchen and living room naturally spread the warm family vibe onto the deck. You may also consider how ingredients and platters will travel between your indoor and outdoor kitchens.

This will define your experience as the chef and how your guest experience your indoor-outdoor events.

Defining and Protecting Your Space

A big part of outdoor living design is protecting the space. Pergolas and pavilion style designs are hot. With roll-down siding and built-in window panels, you can provide optional shelter to your indoor-outdoor spaces while still leaving the deck open to good weather.

Consider where your support poles will go and what kind of protective roof and paneling you will use to shelter your parties should you choose to carry on in poor weather. Consider automatic blinds, roll-down panels, and selective permanent window panels.

Run the Electric and Plumbing Lines

Once design is locked-in, it's time to think about logistics. You will need to extend water and power from the house, and empty the sink into your drain system. Consider where the lines will come from and how they will connect underneath or behind your kitchen. You can hide the lines under a deck floor or inside your kitchen cabinetry if you plan ahead for utilities.

Let the most practical way to run the lines help shape where you place appliances and features of your kitchen. Know where the utility lines will contact your kitchen structure, then run power and water to each cooking station or sink.