Outdoor Kitchens Built as Structural Projects First
We believe an outdoor kitchen is architecture, not appliances. A homeowner usually describes the project as a list of equipment: the grill, the side burner, the sink, the refrigerator, the pizza oven if there is room in the budget. The list is fine as a starting point. It is also not the project. The project is the structure that holds those pieces. Counter material, base structure, surrounding hardscape, drainage off the cooking surface, sight lines from the seating, shade and shelter through summer rain, and the way the kitchen reads as part of the property when no one is cooking.
When the structure is right, the appliances do what the homeowner bought them to do. When the structure is wrong, the appliances spend a few summers as the most expensive failed feature on the property.
I am Josh Perkins, Landscape Architect, and I lead the design work at Plant Studio Landscape’s Muncie outdoor kitchen team. The page below walks the three kitchen types we design most often for East Central Indiana properties and what every kitchen we design has in common regardless of type.
Three Outdoor Kitchen Types We Design For Indiana Properties
Three character types account for most of the outdoor kitchens we design. The character defines almost everything else: footprint, appliance count, utility requirements, integration into the broader outdoor program, and build cost.
The first is the grill-and-counter kitchen. The simplest of the three. A single built-in grill, a flanking counter surface for prep work, storage drawers below, and often a small refrigerator built into the base. No sink, no separate cooking station, no extras beyond what the cooking needs. This kitchen serves homeowners who cook outdoors two or three times a week in season and want a permanent dedicated spot that beats wheeling a grill out from the garage each time. Footprint typically eight to twelve linear feet of counter. Build cost tends to be 30 to 50 percent of a full kitchen and 80 percent of the use.
The second is the full cooking kitchen. The middle category. A grill, a side burner, a built-in sink with hot and cold water, a counter-depth refrigerator, dedicated storage, and an integrated seating bar for two to four people. This kitchen supports actual dinner-from-scratch cooking outdoors. The homeowner can prep, cook, plate, and serve without going back to the indoor kitchen except for the dishwasher. Footprint typically 14 to 20 linear feet, sometimes in an L-shape. Build cost lands between a high-end indoor kitchen renovation and a full outdoor-room build.
The third is the entertaining kitchen. The full category. A grill plus pizza oven plus smoker plus possibly a kamado-style cooker. Multiple cooking stations, multiple prep zones, an outdoor wine refrigerator separate from the food refrigerator, often a beer tap, dedicated bar seating for six to ten, and a covered roof or pergola structure that lets the kitchen function in light rain. Designed around how the homeowner entertains rather than around how the household cooks. Build cost is significant and worth understanding before the design conversation starts.
Most homeowners we walk with come in thinking Type 3 and end up at Type 2. A few stay at Type 1 by choice once they realize the maintenance and use frequency line up better at that footprint.
Structural Decisions That Decide Whether the Kitchen Lasts
Independent of which of the three types, four structural decisions decide whether the outdoor kitchen is still usable in year ten.
The counter material has to handle freeze-thaw without cracking, weight loading from heavy cookware without flexing, and weather staining without becoming embarrassing. Granite holds up best in Indiana conditions. Concrete works if the mix is right. Tile and most wood are wrong choices for our climate. We do not specify materials that need annual sealing the homeowner will not actually do.
The base structure has to be built on a foundation that does not heave with the freeze-thaw cycle. A standard four-inch concrete pad is not enough. A real outdoor kitchen base wants the same footing depth as a residential addition. The shortcut here is what makes most failed outdoor kitchens fail.
The drainage off the cooking surface and out from under the kitchen footprint matters more than most homeowners think. Water has to leave the counter, leave the storage area, and leave the pad surface fast enough that the structure does not stay wet through a rainy stretch.
The roof or shade structure has to be designed at the same time as the kitchen, not added later. A kitchen designed with a pergola has different counter heights and different appliance placements than a kitchen designed open and roofed later. Designing the roof second is what leaves a kitchen that gets used six months a year instead of eight.