3 Simple Strategies To Design An Outdoor Kitchen

Outdoor kitchens have become one of the hottest selling projects in America's home improvement industry .A survey conducted in 2005 survey by the Hearth, Patio & Barbeque Association found that nearly $150 billion was spent on home remodeling in United states. The surprising part was that one third of this amount of that went towards outdoor living areas.

An outdoor kitchen can cost anywhere between $2000 to about $ 30000.The design of these kitchens depends on your requirements, your budget and how often you would be using them. Whether you go in for prefabricated outdoor kitchens or plan to build an outdoor kitchen yourself or have a contractor to do so make sure to set aside a few hours to do adequate planning and evaluating your needs.

There are three basic design strategies which you can consider while designing an outdoor kitchen.

Basic Island Design
A basic island outdoor kitchen features a grill, a sink and a little space where you chop or store supplies. This design works for occasional light cooking but becomes limited if you do plan to cook for elaborate meals or make recipes which require a lot of chopping and simultaneous preparations.

L shaped island Design
In this design configuration, the grill island is made in l shape. There are separate spaces for cooking and preparing food. Seating arrangements are usually next to the grill island.

U-shaped center
The third design style is the U shaped kitchen island. The 3 different lines of the 'u' shape provide distinct zones for cooking, preparation and eating food. An advantage of this design is that food can be served straight from the grill and at the same time maintain a jovial conversation. Chairs and stools are placed next to the grill island so as to eat food on the grill countertop.

If you feel confused which style may suit you trying looking at a few photographs. You could also hire a designer. Many designers now also provide an option to design your outdoor kitchen making use of computer aided design (CAD). Just let your ideas flow and the designer creates your dream kitchen step by step on the computer screen.

By Mike Lombardy

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