Outdoor kitchens are an increasingly popular way to extend indoor living to your outdoor space to help you maximize time outside with family, loved ones, and friends. Like their indoor counterparts, outdoor kitchens serve many purposes. A favorite is serving as a home base outside where people can congregate. If you’re thinking about exploring an outdoor kitchen of your own, there are many style choices and benefits of outdoor kitchens to choose from in the Long Island and Riverhead, NY, areas.

How Will You Use Your Outdoor Kitchen?

As you consider style choices, it’s helpful to think through how you plan to use your outdoor kitchen. Of course, function isn’t the only driver of form and style but it’s a helpful place to start. For example, what kinds of cooking do you envision doing outside? Do you like entertaining guests outdoors? Do you plan to have kids around?

These questions will help inform the overall size of your outdoor kitchen along with the type of cooking equipment you want as well as your surface needs. For example, do you need surface or counter space for cooking prep? What about surface space for a bar area where people can eat and drink? It really comes down to what kind of experiences that you, your family, and friends enjoy.

You can go small and simple or large and elaborate. You might choose to build a pizza oven, grill, and sink all in one unit. Or you might opt for separate units and build an outdoor kitchen space around a fire pit. It’s also possible to find all sorts of outdoor kitchens made from various materials, including stone, concrete, brick, and more. And, with a good landscape contractor, you can bring the customization of your outdoor kitchen to the next level.

Style and Style-Related Choices

You also have plenty of options when it comes to specific styles. You can choose a rustic look with exposed wood beams and stone walls or you can go modern with sleek appliances and stainless-steel countertops.

If you’re planning to build a traditional-style outdoor kitchen, try placing it near a door leading to your house. This way, you can easily access the kitchen area from inside your home without going outside.

If you’d rather have a built-in outdoor kitchen, you can either place it next to a wall or use a freestanding island. Either way, you’ll likely need to leave enough room between the island and the rest of the patio to allow for easy walking.

If you want to incorporate both an outdoor kitchen and a fireplace, you can install your outdoor kitchen near the back of the property, away from the main house.

Let’s take a look at some specific outdoor kitchen features that could impact your style choices as well.

Your Outdoor Grill

A key addition to any outdoor kitchen is the grill. You will want your overall style choice for your outdoor kitchen and the kind of grill you decide on to align. If you’re planning on using your outdoor kitchen mostly on the weekends and special occasions, a standalone grill may make more sense. When you envision cooking outside a few times a week and relish hosting larger gatherings, especially on the weekends, then a built-in grill may be the choice for you. Thinking through these options are where outdoor kitchen style choice and lifestyle choice really go hand in hand.

Here are some additional aspects to think about when it comes to style choice and grill choice. Stand-alone grills are more versatile and can be moved around your outdoor kitchen space. This allows you to have more freedom when it comes to things like furniture placement on your patio.

Stand-alone grills typically do not take up as much space as built-in grills. And if you don’t plan to entertain a lot of people at once, smaller grills probably may work just fine, keeping in mind that with a smaller size grill comes a smaller actual cooking space as well.

What about built-in grills? For starters, they tend to be bigger and favor a different style choice. They are stationary unlike their stand-alone counterparts. But with built-in placement comes some enormous advantages. Your built-in grill will take up more space but with that size consideration comes more space to grill, more space for preparation, more space for storage (think utensils, chopping boards, and so on), more space for others to be part of the experience as well. With a built-in grill, you have the opportunity to really set up the outdoor version of your indoor kitchen which means much less back and forth and greater incentives to stay outside.

Having a stationary grill, along with storage for sharp knives, meat thermometers, and more, can create a zone of safety, which can be a big bonus, especially for larger gatherings that may also include children.

A Kitchen Island Adds Both Form and Function

You may also want to consider a kitchen island to help with food prep and even to provide additional eating space as well. In planning your outdoor kitchen with a contractor, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got space to accommodate an outdoor island.

Homemade Pizza Made Fresh Outside

A pizza oven makes a wonderful addition to an outdoor kitchen. It is a feature that can be enjoyed in any season. It enhances the versatility and use of your outdoor kitchen as well. Pizza works beautifully for kids or younger guests and for entertaining adult family and friends as well. It is also the rare type of food that you can literally “dress up or dress down,” depending on your guests and the occasion. In cooler months, a pizza oven also brings the added comfort, warmth, and even some of the coziness of a fire pit.

More Enjoyment, Less Hassle with the Complement of an Outdoor Bar

To enhance convenience and entertainment value, you may want to consider adding an outdoor bar as part of your overall outdoor kitchen plan. Having that accessibility to drinks, ice, cups, and a blender really goes a long way to bringing indoor hospitality outside. A bar area accentuates the outdoor kitchen as a gathering place as well.

Finally, remember that whatever you decide, you can always add additional features later. If you need a little bit more space for your appliances, you can always expand your current outdoor kitchen.

There are many style choices at your disposal, depending on your vision for an outdoor kitchen. But what about the benefits of having an outdoor kitchen?

Odors and Heat Escape Faster Outside

One immediate benefit of an outdoor kitchen is simply cooking outside. When you grill seafood or certain meats inside, you risk having those smells wafting through your house from your kitchen for days. Not so when you grill outside. They waft into the air. Just as you do not want smells trapped inside, the same logic applies to heat as well. Outside, at least, the heat isn’t trapped. It is much more comfortable for you and your family or guests.

Less Clean-Up and Less Wear and Tear on Your Home

Another benefit of a well-equipped outdoor kitchen is less back and forth from outside your house to inside your house and back again. And when kids are involved, this back and forth simply means more clean up after the party. With a well-appointed outdoor kitchen that brings so many of the features of an indoor kitchen outside, people have less reason or cause to go inside to get more ice or to get something more to drink because it's already available outside.

Creates an Outdoor Gathering Spot

When your outdoor kitchen and bar become your primary gathering spot outside, not only is clean up easier, there are far more incentives for more people to spend time together in one central location. A good outdoor kitchen and outdoor living situation allows for different activities to happen all at once but in one central area. Kids can be playing catch or swimming in the pool, while parents have drinks and appetizers. The convenience and ease of a good outdoor kitchen helps foster extended time together.

Expands Living Space

When you build an outdoor kitchen, you are expanding your living space, plain and simple. So much of what you enjoy indoors, you are able to transfer outdoors without many of the same hassles. Here are some benefits you might not think of immediately: with an outdoor kitchen, you are in effect adding an extra entertaining space but there are no walls to paint, no floors to clean (besides perhaps some sweeping), no pictures to hang, no rugs to vacuum. Yes, you may have some outside décor to think about but nothing major.

Can Be Eco-Friendly

You may be able to incorporate green features into your outdoor kitchen design that increase energy efficiency and reduce your carbon footprint. For instance, you can choose a solar powered refrigerator instead of an electric model.

Contributes to a Healthier Lifestyle and Less Stress

When you spend time cooking in the fresh air, you will feel healthier. Studies show that spending time outside reduces stress levels and improves sleep patterns. Plus, outdoor kitchens give you access to natural sunlight, which is known to boost vitamin D production.

Hopefully, you see how your style choice for your outdoor kitchen depends somewhat, if not a lot, on your lifestyle choice—how you want to spend time outdoors, how you want to entertain and how much, and ultimately what makes sense for you, your family, and loved ones.

The Many Style Choices and Benefits of Outdoor Kitchens in the Long Island and Riverhead, NY, Areas