Want an Outdoor Kitchen? 4 Permanent Features to Include

After getting your hands on a home that you love, you probably don’t plan to leave any time soon. However, being satisfied with the inside does not mean that you always love everything about the outside. If you find that the backyard lacks in features, solve this problem by adding an outdoor kitchen that meets your family's wants and needs.

While you can get familiar with these kitchens by looking online and in magazines, you will need to make a number of important decisions before you end up with an outdoor kitchen. Knowing what permanent features are worth including will help you feel confident with moving forward.

Without an outdoor kitchen, your cooking options are often limited to a grill with minimal space for prepping. An excellent feature for an outdoor kitchen is a grill island in which you add a countertop that surrounds the grill and provides you with ample counter space for meal prep.

Since the San Antonio area can get measurable precipitation most months, you should probably make it a priority to invest in a solid cover for the grill area to prevent rain from becoming a problem. This will help you keep the entire grill island both dry and clean throughout the entire year.

A major benefit that comes with creating an outdoor kitchen is the ability to add permanent storage. For instance, you should not hesitate to add a refrigerator because this will make it easy to prepare for any upcoming events by stocking the fridge with snacks, ingredients, and drinks.

If you intend on adding a bar to your kitchen, you may want to go the extra mile by adding a wine refrigerator nearby so that you always have quick and easy access to drinks.

While a refrigerator will solve all your cold storage needs, you should also add drawers within the grill island and any other areas where you would like to store kitchen-related items. Going with stainless steel drawers is a smart choice for its durability and ability to match with other features.

Installing a sink is a feature that helps to turn your outdoor cooking space into a fully functioning kitchen. Without a sink, you will likely still have to rely on the kitchen inside your house for certain tasks such as rinsing fruits and vegetables and washing your hands when they get dirty.

As part of the grill island or in a separate area, you should make plans to add a sink. This is when you will need to choose which type of sink to install outside. If you want to create an easy-to-clean outdoor space, you should not hesitate to go with a farmhouse or undermount sink. These sinks are seamless at the top, which makes it easy to keep the countertop and sink clean.

To add even more functionality to this feature, you may want to put in a garbage disposal. This feature will help you minimize garbage buildup while cooking and entertaining outside. You will also likely appreciate the ability to keep animals and bugs away by disposing of so much food waste.

If you want to get something extra special out of your outdoor kitchen, you will find that building a pizza oven is often an outstanding option. Trying to replicate the pizza that you get at restaurants is not something that you can usually do with a regular oven due to temperature limitations.

By building a wood-fired oven from brick, you can get the setup that you need in your backyard to make restaurant-quality pizza for family and friends who come over. Since brick is so customizable, you can pick from so many designs to make sure it looks great in your backyard.

Whether you want to learn more about your options for an outdoor kitchen or you are ready to start coming up with concrete plans, contact our experts at Superior Outdoor Designs any time.