10 Ideas to Make Your Outdoor Kitchen Sizzle

It's the little things that can make a difference, and we're not talking briquettes

 

By Laura Gaskill - Houzz Contributor 

 

Looking to spice up your grilling area this summer? Try adding one (or more) of these fun features, from grill-side seating to a vintage fridge. As long as the weather is fine, you may find yourself cooking outside more than in!

Paradise Restored Landscaping & Exterior Design

Pull up to the kitchen bar. Keep guests entertained with bar seats pulled up to the grill, where they can taste hot-off-the-fire nibbles. On its own, this is a great small-space solution; in a more expansive yard, supplement the grill-side seats with a larger dining table.
See how to make your outdoor kitchen party-friendly

Linova Photography

 

Get the cooking area under cover. A roof over the outdoor cooking area makes it easier for the grill master to keep grilling even when an unexpected rainstorm pops up. The L-shaped counter space with seating and adjacent dining area and fire pit make this a backyard guests will never want to leave.

Browse ideas for installing a covered patio

Key Residential

Add a full-size fridge. If you cook outdoors a lot, a fridge and freezer can be a big help. Keep them stocked with ice, chilled drinks and the food you plan to grill, and that will free up space in your regular fridge. Of course, not just any fridge will do — a retro style in a cheerful color, like the Smeg shown here, will add to the style of your outdoor space.


View outdoor rooms designed for entertaining

Alfonso Designs

Coordinate with color. Grills, decks and outdoor seating tend to be neutral and no-frills, so use a few pops of bold color to wake up your outdoor kitchen. Bright poppy red was used here in artwork, dishes, a chair and a sleek trash can.
Give your patio decor a quick boost with these tips

Terra Firma Design

Pack in useful details. It’s the little things that can make all the difference in your outdoor kitchen experience, so consider what would benefit you the most — better lighting, prep space, music? This Toronto rooftop kitchen includes a mini fridge, dish storage, speakers for an electronic device and night lighting.

See the rest of this rooftop kitchen

J A L A, Jeff Allen Landscape Architecture

Get cooking in the garden. Highlight your love of ultra-local ingredients with an outdoor kitchen located near your veggie garden. A brick surround that matches the low garden wall helps integrate the kitchen into the larger outdoor space.

Get inspired with these beautifully designed vegetable gardens

Harrison's Landscaping

Go modern. Concrete and rich wood are a modern minimalist pairing perfect for an urban environment. This outdoor kitchen is outfitted with a pizza oven — a worthy splurge if you love doing a weekly pizza night at home!


Get the skinny on outdoor pizza ovens

New Eco Landscapes

Double up on grills and storage. If you’re serious about barbecue, it could be worth your while to invest in two grills: one gas (for quick cooking) and one charcoal (for traditional smoky barbecue). A stainless steel gas grill and a “big green egg” perfect for slow cooking are connected by cabinetry in this Red Hook, Brooklyn, backyard. A sink and plenty of counter space make prepping food easy, and hidden storage below means you can keep outdoor cookware and tools close at hand.

Learn more about putting in an outdoor grill

Hursthouse Landscape Architects and Contractors

Put a pergola over the grill. A garden structure like a pergola adds architectural interest to the outdoor kitchen and provides a place to attach sconce lighting. And while you wouldn’t want climbing plants dangling directly over the grill (hello fire hazard!), if your pergola is a safe distance from the heat, you could grow plants over it, giving the area a lush green touch.

Check out ways to improve your outdoor grill setup

Astoria Designs

Bring your indoor style out. The small-scale but well-crafted cabinetry in this outdoor kitchen echoes the interior style. Locating the grill within steps of the kitchen door makes it easy to carry ingredients outside and hot plates of food in, and a built-in bench seat provides a spot for guests to sit and chat while the food is being prepared.

21 Creative Ways With Load-Bearing Columns

Turn that structural necessity into a design asset by adding storage, creating zones and much more

 

By Mariana Pickering - Houzz Contributor

 

The eternal struggle between design and engineering often leaves us with conundrums. It’s easy to glide through the home design process in almost a dreamlike trance, imagining a spacious open floor plan with big, sweeping views that flow from room to room, making the house feel bigger than it is.

Then comes the day when your architect or structural engineer wakes you up with, “Hey! You’re going to need a column to support that roof!” Renovation junkies experience the same jolt of reality when “Let’s just tear that wall down and open this space up” becomes complicated with pesky terminology like “load bearing.”

Indeed, columns are often unavoidable in open floor plans. I’ve been working on a renovation of a space with two such unavoidable columns conspicuously placed right in the center of my open floor plan. So for inspiration, I looked at some of the ways Houzzers have dealt with columns in their homes. Here are some of the great suggestions I’ve stumbled across. 

 

Rikki Snyder

Make a central column tactile. If it’s going to be in the center of activity, then you might as well make it pleasant to touch. Rope was wrapped around this wooden column to accommodate the belief held by certain feline occupants of the home that a large scratching post had been placed in the middle of the room for them. However, the combination of the wood with the rope makes it equally tactile for humans to run their fingers across as they pass by.

 

The Alhadeff Group

Use a column to anchor an island. Consider using your column as a pivot point to which your built-in furniture, like your kitchen island, can gravitate. Notice how the floor remains consistent, but the column, in combination with the similarly sized beams, marks the kitchen space.

 

Claudio Ortiz Design Group, Inc.

Use a row of columns to signal a level change. A row of columns is a perfect place to put one or two steps up to an elevated section of the floor plan. Plus, the row of vertical structures acts as a visual cue to watch your toes.

 

Via Builders Inc

Light it up. Integrate downlighting, uplighting or a lit display box, like the one shown here, to showcase a sculpture or another piece of art.

 

Rick Ryniak Architects

Decorate your columns. Treat the column itself as a work of art and showcase an ornate pattern or carving.

 

Paul Moon Design

Clad a large column in stone. The imposing presence of the masonry column here reminds you of its purpose, while at the same time introducing a tactile material that contrasts with the rest of the soft interior. This could be a good idea for bringing some of the material from the home’s exterior inside.

 

Wentworth, Inc.

Turn it into a media center. Not sure where to place your TV in your big, beautiful open floor plan? Why not turn your structural column into a media center? Even if you don’t place the TV there right away, it could be smart planning to allow for electrical outlets near the column.

 

Urban Abode

Make two columns into a bookcase. Use two columns that are close together to create shelving and lighting for display or storage space. You could even clad them to match other built-in furniture in the room, and no one would even know they’re structural.

 

Visbeen Architects

Make a wine rack. Encase the column and add some cubbies, and you have a perfect spot to store wines. You could do something similar for shoes, CDs or anything else that could fit into cubbies.

 

C & A Builders

Create a spot for a minibar. Forget the wine rack! Use the column as an opportunity to create a minibar or an ice station.

 

CustomMade.com

Let your column tell a story. Consider using a reclaimed structural element as your feature column (after clearing it with your structural engineer, of course).

 

Brunelleschi Construction

Make it a room divider. For a row of columns between two spaces with different functions, consider adding some low storage that can also act as a room divider.

 

Griffin Enright Architects

Here’s another example of storage between columns that are acting as a room divider. The open, floating shelf system here has a very different feel from the previous example but achieves a similar result.

 

Amanda Still, Hill Design + Gallery

Create custom furniture. This bar stretches between two columns to nicely frame the kitchen while providing vertical and horizontal storage space.

 

Context Architects

Use a column to signal private space. This column almost acts more like a screen. The front side is a display case with built-in shelves, but the structure marks the separation between a more public and a more private part of the house.

 

Laura U, Inc.

Display art on your columns. These large white columns are acting as blank canvases for floating typographic artwork. The downlights cast shadows on the columns, making the artwork even more noticeable.

 

Lewis / Schoeplein architects

Use a row of columns to provide rhythm. The eye takes comfort in patterns. Use columns, and even beams, to create a sense of rhythm in an otherwise muted space.

 

Saint Dizier Design

Use the column material to bring nature in. Depending on where in the world you’re located, you may be able to find tree trunks that meet your structural requirements.

 

Glenn Robert Lym Architect

Create seating around the column base. Or even stretch a bench between two columns for an extra spot where people can take shoes off.

 

Elad Gonen

Create contrast between materials. Use the columns like you would a feature wall. Color them or clad them with a contrasting texture to add a splash in a room with minimalist decor.

 

kimberly peck architect

Create contrast between styles. Like with a classical column in a contemporary setting, as shown here.

 

Mullet Cabinet

Get whimsical. Show your playful side, like with these Disney-inspired columns that resemble something from a cartoon.

Instead of trying to make structural columns disappear in your open floor plan, try to celebrate them. Because at the end of the day, the column stands alone!