When you build an outdoor kitchen in your backyard, you’re making the statement that you want to take full advantage of what your property has to offer. Between cooking meals for loved ones and entertaining friends, an outdoor kitchen serves as a natural gathering place as well as a strong presence in your landscape design. But, no kitchen is an “island” in that it should be well-integrated into its surroundings. Here are five landscape features that belong alongside your outdoor kitchen in Lake Forest and Winnetka, IL.
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Pavilion
You could have the ultimate feast going with friends and family when nature swoops in and sends everyone running for the back door. Dining outdoors always carries this risk, but you could mitigate this by placing a pavilion over your outdoor kitchen. The open walls of a pavilion keep the outdoor feeling as you cook and eat with friends and family. Meanwhile, the closed roof prevents the worst of the precipitation - or even strong sunlight - from putting a damper on your backyard dining experience.
Vertical Garden
A big part of the joy of outdoor cooking comes from enjoying what the natural world has to offer. When you grow some of the fruits and vegetables you craft your meals with, that pride seems to make the food taste even better. A vertical garden can make up one of the outer walls of your outdoor kitchen. There, a series of planters can grow smaller edible greens such as herbs, peppers, or tomatoes. You can even include an automatic drip irrigation system to make watering and maintenance easier. This living wall will make an incredible backdrop for your outdoor kitchen.
Outdoor Fireplace
Fire features are essential components of landscapes and outdoor fireplaces are the most prominent. These magnificent structures put masonry on full display and help bring warmth, light, and community to your backyard. An outdoor fireplace is especially useful around an outdoor kitchen as your friends and family stay warm and cozy while they await a delicious feast. You can even incorporate the outdoor fireplace into your cooking with the use of a separate wood burning chamber that produces pizzas, breads, and much more.
Retaining Wall
Retaining walls are used to help prevent erosion in sloped landscapes, but they can be quite useful in other applications as well. Retaining walls can add extra usable space, provide a physical barrier between spaces of use, add some extra seating space to an outdoor living space, support decorations, house lighting fixtures, and even be integrated into an outdoor kitchen. This beautiful masonry feature may even provide the vertical surface area that your outdoor kitchen requires to feel cozier. A retaining wall can continue the masonry theme expressed in your outdoor kitchen. This simple addition will make the space feel more complete.
Bar Seating
With any outdoor kitchen, you’ll want to provide plenty of seating. You may already have a dining table space in mind, but bar seating is a wonderful addition that keeps your outdoor kitchen more interactive by giving a great view of the cooking action as meals are prepared. Of course, bar seating goes very well with beverage equipment as well. Make sure to add appliances that bring you your favorite drinks, such as a beer tap and keg, wine cooler, and ice machine.
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