We love working to extend the boundaries of our customers’ homes, bringing the best of indoor living to the great outdoors.
Outdoor kitchens have been growing in popularity dramatically over the last 5 years. The Landworx crew couldn’t be happier! We love creating beautiful kitchens that even when located outside the home, somehow seem to become the gathering spot at any party. The kitchen is the heart of the home as they say and this is no less true when that kitchen is just outside the backdoor. So dive into the planning of your outdoor masterpiece and make sure to consider these few key points.
Location is Key
Perhaps the most crucial thing to consider when planning a new outdoor kitchen is the location. Where to place your kitchen in the overall outdoor living design is really important for a few reasons. The first is that smoke from the grill that’s cooking those beautiful eats for you and your family has to go somewhere. Proper planning says that that it won’t be in your eyes. Prevailing winds, the breeze that blows mostly from one main direction, come from the Southwest in the Hudson Valley summer season. Be sure to locate your outdoor kitchen so that this prevailing wind takes the smoke away from seating areas. As sweet as the smell of a summer grill is, it’s not fun to leave a party smelling like a campfire.
The second key thing to consider is the distance between your new outdoor kitchen and your indoor kitchen. This is especially important if you like to entertain regularly. As fully equipped as outdoor kitchens can be today, there still is often a need to transfer heavy platters of food between locations. Be sure to work the kitchen into the overall landscape design so that it’s fairly close to the back door—you’ll thank yourself later.
Size Matters
One of the most difficult things for customers to get a handle on is how big to make their outdoor kitchen. We find the best way to answer that question is by first deciding what appliances will be included in the plan. Outdoor kitchens in the Hudson Valley can include pretty much any element you can dream of and is limited only by budget. Outdoor refrigerators, cooktops, grills, smokers, sinks, and even deep fryers, are all available for the outdoor kitchen today. Once you decide on what appliances will be best suited for your family’s needs, only then can the kitchen dimensions start to take shape. Many of the same principles from interior kitchen design still apply to the backyard set-up. Things like countertop heights, relationships between appliances, and the golden triangle rule of kitchen design are still very important here.
Material Choices
When choosing the materials for your new outdoor kitchen, it’s important to remember that even though the kitchen is outdoors, it is still a working, functioning kitchen. There will be spills, grease stains, splattered BBQ sauce, and all the other goodies that come with preparing great food. Choose materials that either naturally repel staining or that can be treated with a sealant for better performance. Great countertops options include custom-cut granite in a variety of colors and beautiful thermal-finished bluestone.
Spring is just around the bend—so dig in and get planning the outdoor kitchen of your dreams.
