LiveIn|LiveOut

When looking for great outdoor kitchen ideas and plans for turning that drab old patio space into an exciting and usable area for entertaining, there are many things to consider. First on the list should be your research and planning to help determine what type of kitchen or dining area you need based upon your entertaining style.  Of course, you can always choose to design one you’d like to have and can feasibly construct. There are also magazines dedicated exclusively to these topics. Another idea would be to visit home shows in your area where they showcase ideas and mock set-ups of how you could design and layout your own kitchen. You will also get a sense of all the available accessories and products available to use on the modern patio.

The patio is a very flexible area. You can use it more for rest and relaxation or for hosting dinner parties and outdoor dining with friends and family. This is why planning is such a big factor in determining how your patio space will be utilized. When you know just how you will be enjoying your new design, it is easier to work backward from that point. This is even more true when you are planning on having your patio extend the usable space or square footage of your home. These outdoor rooms or spaces bring more flexibility to you as the host and entertainer.

It is really all about more usable square footage for your home. This is what having a kitchen outside will provide for you. You may even find that the total size feels greater than the actual measurements when applied to how your space ultimately feels. As you know, the kitchen will eventually be the gathering spot. If you have a small kitchen design inside or the layout is just a poor use of space, this is a problem. So, if you can bring your guests into other areas outdoors, it will create more flow and livable, usable space.  This is really what outdoor living is all about.

As we’ve alluded to, there are a variety of outdoor kitchen ideas to fit most any homeowner’s tastes. The outdoor grill on the patio just doesn’t cut it as a kitchen anymore. It probably never really did. The point is, with items like stainless steel appliances, various cook tops, counters, sinks and even refrigerators and dishwashers for outdoor spaces, it’s hard not to take advantage of some of these features to really amp up your outdoor space.  Enjoy!

With so many of us living in small spaces, the room that housing designers allocate to the kitchen is often less than we would like. And not all of us can afford a complete redesign or a move to a larger home! However, there are ways of optimizing the space available without such drastic measures. If you have a small kitchen ideas such as the following can really help; act on as many of them as you can to maximize the usefulness of the kitchen space you have.

It may sound an obvious suggestion but de-cluttering is one of the quickest and easiest ways to make your kitchen space seem larger. To begin with, try to use up any food you’ve had in your cupboard or pantry for a while, and don’t replace any items you don’t use on a regular basis. Think about moving any kitchen utensils that you don’t use frequently to other rooms, or buy some lightweight plastic crates for the space above your kitchen cupboards, and store the less often used items in these. If you find that your kitchen is being used as a home for non-kitchen-related items, such as stationery, craft tools, or other hobby bits and pieces, make sure you allocate these to another room too, and ban the use of the kitchen for anything other than traditional kitchen uses!

Not all designs for small kitchens are ideal, but you can help to get the most out of what is already there by organizing the contents around the space. Keep ingredients and your favorite utensils close to the food preparation area and serving dishes and glassware in spaces away from the working space. That way, anyone cooking or serving in the kitchen will not need to be disturbed if anyone pops in for a glass of cordial or cup of tea. Try and move the kettle to a place where it can be accessed by tea-makers and cooks alike!

If you often serve meals on a kitchen table, you may find that stopping this habit and having, for example, breakfast on the dining table instead gives you a whole new space which you could use more practically. Consider purchasing a mobile island with a work surface and storage space underneath, for example, or simply a freestanding cupboard if storage space is more at a premium than preparation areas.

The insides of cupboard doors can be a great place to add storage; often the shelves inside the cupboard are a good deal shorter than the depth of the space, and spice racks or other shallow items can be easily relocated inside a door.

The space under the sink is often home to more than just essential cleaning materials, but even these can be moved to a cupboard elsewhere, and just dishwashing products kept in the kitchen. Then you could attach a waste bin to the door, and clear another bit of kitchen floor space.

Finally, be rigorous in keeping your reorganised kitchen the way you want it, and you’ll be amazed at how much space you suddenly have!