Outdoor Kitchen Ideas: How to Design a Space That is Both Functional and Beautiful

Creating the perfect outdoor kitchen is a fantastic addition to your home, providing a beautiful space that is also practical and functional. Between cooking, entertaining, gathering the family together, or simply enjoying the outdoors, a well-designed outdoor kitchen is a valuable and worthwhile investment.

At Lindgren Landscape, we’ve built some of the most enchanting outdoor kitchens in Colorado since 1995. From our award-winning experience in outdoor kitchen installation, this article stands as a comprehensive guide to designing the best outdoor kitchens for your Colorado home.

What is an Outdoor Kitchen?

An outdoor kitchen is a cooking and dining area designed and installed outside the home. It's an extension of your home’s usable space that seamlessly integrates into the property’s natural landscape, providing all the functionality and convenience of traditional kitchen spaces with the added charm and appeal of the great outdoors.

Depending on your needs, design interests, and available outdoor space, every outdoor kitchen is bound to be different, and as we explore further, you'll discover outdoor kitchens are more than just cooking areas. They are spaces for entertaining, relaxing, and savoring life's simple pleasures.

What to Consider for an Outdoor Kitchen

While every outdoor kitchen is different, they all require careful planning in order to achieve the most beautiful and satisfactory results. Much of the design process can be streamlined and perfected by working with a landscape expert like Lindgren Landscape, but it’s wise to prepare yourself with the following considerations as you get started:

Determine the Space and Location

One of the most important first steps is to define the space and location where you intend to build your outdoor kitchen. It’s wise to facilitate convenience, usually by locating the outdoor kitchen space with easy access to the main kitchen or dining area, and it’s important to consider the seamless flow between your home, the outdoor kitchen, and the surrounding natural landscape and garden. Lindgren Landscape helps clients select the optimal location for their kitchen, including expert planning that encourages cohesiveness with the rest of the property.

Establish Your Budget

By evaluating how much you’re willing to invest in the outdoor kitchen, you can more readily plan the perfect solution, including the materials of the structure, the appliances, and the overall design. Design your ideal kitchen, define its most important features, and evaluate how those kitchen features fit within your budget structure. You may consider adding features like a grill, pizza oven, warming drawers, refrigerator, bar, sinks, heating, and storage, and you may consider a variety of building materials from wood to stone.

Create a Preliminary Design

By working with professionals like Lindgren Landscape, it’s easy to create a preliminary design to provide the scope and detail around what your outdoor kitchen will look like and include. This is a great time to contemplate various outdoor kitchen ideas for inspiration, conduct research, and prepare your home for the upcoming addition. It’s possible to create a design on your own, but a professional landscape company can help create an efficient, effective, and aesthetically stunning kitchen.

Outdoor Kitchen Ideas

Designing your outdoor kitchen is only the beginning - the real fun begins when you start to consider and incorporate utility from a holistic viewpoint. Here are a few ideas that will help improve any kitchen; we invite you to envision how these will relate to your own project.

Optimize Its Potential

Outdoor kitchens have incredible potential to add value to your home - from an aesthetic and versatility standpoint, be sure to evaluate every angle including:

• practicality throughout different seasons
• the relative lighting at all times of the day
• how it facilitates efficiency and ease of use
• the comfort and convenience for users
• streamlined cleanliness and safety
• the aesthetic qualities that match a desired theme or personal tastes
• the functional demands (appliances, technology, seating, etc.)

Integrate the Landscape

Creating a harmonious connection between your outdoor kitchen and the surrounding garden can transform your space into an inviting oasis for relaxation and entertainment. Leverage the natural beauty of Colorado, and develop the flow between your home, the outdoor kitchen, and the surrounding landscape. Highlight focal points, promote Colorado wildflowers and grasses, and utilize lighting to more seamlessly connect your outdoor kitchen and the environment while allowing for its use at any time of the day or night.

Weather Proofing

It’s important to stay aware of the weather-proofing needs of your outdoor kitchen, especially in the dynamic Colorado weather. Between seasonal weather fluctuations, such as intense heat, hail, rain, and snow, and more day-to-day weather factors, such as wind direction and sun positioning, be sure to select the right materials, structures, and specially designed layouts in order to make your outdoor kitchen as weather-resistant as possible. Adding a shade structure (pergola/roof/shade sails/louvered system) with drop down shades helps to make sure the kitchen is usable with the intensity of our sun, and in the case of a roof/louvered structure, even if it’s raining.  Ideally, your outdoor kitchen should be built to be used during all seasons and weather conditions, using resilient weather-proof materials.

Achieve the Perfect Layout

Your outdoor kitchen should be a place that adds complete value to your home, from its practicality to its aesthetic appeal. Every landscape is different, but by designing the perfect layout that caters to the way you want to use it, your outdoor kitchen should meld into the landscape and benefit from its natural subtlety. It should flow easily from one part of the home and property to the other, conducive to convenience and harmony with the rest of your life.

Build the Perfect Outdoor Kitchen

At Lindgren Landscape, we’ve been serving Colorado residents with jaw-dropping outdoor kitchen installations for nearly 30 years, and we can’t wait to build your dream project too. The perfect outdoor kitchen requires careful and precise planning, and when successfully designed and installed by an experienced team, this investment will bring value and comfort that stand the test of time. Contact Lindgren Landscape today to learn more about why our clients love working with us!