We are building a house, and we will have an outdoor kitchen.

What mistakes have you made when having an outdoor kitchen?
What do you recommend for including in your outdoor kitchen?

Assume you have a budget of $60K for this area.
The pool budget is separate.


Go...

Wood Burning Pizza Oven

Garbage disposal in sink is a must.

My priorities would be:

1) Shade and fans.








2) Everything else.

yeah, that is already planned.

Sink
Trash can
Place for an Egg cooker

What type of cooking do you do? My old one had a built in gas grill and burner ring, small sink and beer size fridge.

What I'd change:

• slightly larger fridge
• TV big enough to see from the pool
• double sink

I'd skip the built in trash can and use the space for drawers. Lighting is important and needs to be well thought out. My outdoor kitchen is detached from the house so additional lighting would have been better.
The most important items are storage, refrigeration, ice, audio/visual, then cooking appliances, water/sink, etc. Depending on how you layout is with your pool and kitchen you might think about two TVs. We (my wife actually) added one that you can see from the pool/bar/table and another one that you can watch from the fireplace/fire pit/seating area.

NW80 said:

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Wood Burning Pizza Oven

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You a Yankee????

The biggest mistake I usually see with outdoor kitchens is too much counter top space and too big of a kitchen concept. I'll explain.

Everyone thinks they will cart the food outside, prep around the grill/smoker, and have a cold one while doing it. Two problems present themselves in this scenario:

1) The counter tops are almost always dirty, bc people don't take the time to keep those counters clean. End result - people prep food inside, then take it out to cook.

2) Its too damn hot to stand around outside in Texas for 8 of the 12 months. So again, people prep inside, then take it outside to cook.

The most useful outdoor kitchens I see are more of an outdoor space - seating areas, landscaping, built in grill. The whole "I'm gonna treat this outside area like my kitchen" never really works out, IMO. Its hot, its (often) dirty, and people just want to cook out there - not prep, wash, hang out.

If I did an outdoor kitchen, I'd keep the "kitchen" part to a minimum, and spend the money/space on a great seating area, outdoor TV, music, etc. Outdoor entertainment > Outdoor Kitchen.

Assuming that $60k doesn't include any structural stuff, you can do about anything you want! Mine is shielded by the house from the north and west, which is super nice in the summer.

We designed ours and honestly, there is nothing we would change. The wrap around kitchen is great. Provides good space so you don't feel like you are standing in a closet while cooking. Incorporating the bar height sitting area was good because it makes a large part of the kitchen multi-purpose.

https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/2497675

The other thing I'd consider if you're doing the pool design and the kitchen together is to add a swim up bar. I'll try to find the link I posted pictures in earlier.

https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/2954877

Some pics of mine are in this thread that'll maybe give you some ideas.

tmaggies said:

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NW80 said:

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Wood Burning Pizza Oven

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Err..... not hardly!
The oven is in addition to a grill/smoker!
The oven is a lot of fun and can be used for multiple things.





You a Yankee????

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We are planning our outdoor kitchen right now.

I've got a Tiernan Son of Brisket smoker/grill we will build in, a wok burner (doubles for crawfish boil) and a wood fired oven are the only cooking appliances. I'll add a small sink for washing hands and such and will certainly add some cabinets/drawers for storage. I'm on the fence about the refrigerator, I have two sons who literally argue over who gets to bring me my next beer and feel like when we do entertain a rolling ice tub will be sufficient. I do have a rolling kegerator that we can roll out if we need to.

We have actually rotated the house and my shop/office 30 degrees to completely block the prevailing winds for spring, fall and summer, we will get a little wind from the Northeast in the dead of winter, but cooking outside in single digit temps doesn't really appeal to me.

Best thing we did that hasn't been mentioned so far: paint the ceiling sky blue to keep out wasps, birds and other pests. I didn't believe it either but it works.

I really enjoy my cocktail station. Glad the wife talked me into a pull-out trash bin. Ceiling fan is required. I'm installing a misting system today and wish I had a convenient water source. We have electrical outlets every where, up high for string lights and down low for everything else. Small fridge. Several benches for plants or, on party weekends, for tubs with beer on ice. Fireplace and woodbox.

It has been an excellent party room.

https://imgur.com/PCKuNSm

Never heard that tip about painting the ceiling blue... interesting.

And nice outdoor area!