Outdoor Kitchens & Grills

Four levels of outdoor kitchen

At the first level there is a cart: a grill on wheels with shelves either side, which needs nothing from the garden and can be put away. At the second there is a freestanding grill in a fixed position, with the cooking sorted and nothing built.

At the third there is a prefabricated island, which arrives as a structure with openings and turns the corner of a terrace into a kitchen. At the fourth the island is built on site, clad to match the house, with the equipment chosen first and the structure made around it. Each level asks more of the garden beforehand and gives more back in how the space works afterwards.

What each level needs

A cart asks for nothing: no base, no services, no preparation. A fixed freestanding grill asks for a level spot and, if it runs on natural gas, a line. A prefabricated island asks for a base that will carry it and services brought to it. A built island asks for all of that plus the construction.

That ladder comes before any product comparison, because it is the part that cannot be undone later. A garden still being worked out is a good reason to stay low on it; a terrace that is finished and staying finished is a good reason to go higher.

Building a fixed outdoor kitchen

The moment a structure is involved, three things become fixed: where the cooking happens, what has to be brought to that spot, and what the terrace has to be underneath it. Gas, water and power all have to reach the position, and that work is the same whether the island is delivered or built.

It is why the position is the decision to settle first in any project beyond a cart. Everything else can be changed later; a gas line already run to a point in the garden is the thing that resists being moved.

Equipment and structure

In a built kitchen the grill is chosen first and the structure is made to suit it. In a prefabricated island the structure comes with its openings already made and the equipment is chosen to fit them. Those are opposite sequences, and knowing which one a project is following is what keeps the equipment and the structure agreeing with each other.

The grills page covers the cooking equipment and how built in heads are specified; the outdoor kitchen islands page covers the prefabricated structures.

Side burners, storage and refrigeration

An outdoor kitchen usually grows a side burner, storage doors and drawers, and sometimes refrigeration. Each of those has its own opening in a built island and its own place in a prefabricated one.

What decides whether they earn their space is how the terrace is actually used. Storage outside decides how often the kitchen actually gets used, because the alternative is carrying everything out and back each time, which is the thing that stops an outdoor kitchen being used.

The base underneath

Everything beyond a cart needs a level, solid base, and a terrace that was laid for furniture is not automatically one that will carry a masonry island.

The granite pavers and cobblestone range covers surfacing, and the fire pit tables page covers the other half of an outdoor room, which is where people sit once the cooking is done.