A family’s love of food is sometimes the only thing that can bring them together under one roof. As the spring months roll on into summer, activities and sports can get in the way of families spending quality time with one another. The kitchen, however, is often a home’s focal point, both in design and reality. While each member of the family has their own personal space, the kitchen is the place they go to commune and share time together. For this very reason, outdoor kitchens have long been a popular choice for discerning homeowners looking to create the indoor experience, outside. Custom outdoor kitchens provide a perfect gathering place for Texans to cool off and break bread with friends and family, whether it is a simple kitchenette or a full blown professional-style design. Designers are able to custom tailor each individual design to the owner’s specifications resulting in a cooking and living space that meets all of the customer’s desires and that can be finished out with immaculate detail.
Advances in L.E.D. lighting as well as cooking apparatus’ are providing today’s outdoor kitchen builder with limitless options in customization and personalization. L.E.D. illumination requires a fraction of the electricity needed to power conventional outdoor incandescent bulbs and simultaneously attains a substantially longer service life. Their smaller size also enables mounting in unobtrusive, out of the way spaces, creating unexpected and exciting shadow effects during the night. The outdoor lighting available today can include beautiful up and accent lights for highlighting outdoor features, or in-ground and path lights to help define spaces at night.
Ceiling fans may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of outdoor kitchen design, until you realize that special purpose outdoor ceiling fans featuring large, heavy duty fronds go a long way toward combating the Texas heat under a covered structure or pergola. Modern outdoor ceiling fans are a subtle design detail that can truly make your outdoor area feel like an interior room.
For centuries, the charcoal grill has been a staple of Texan cuisine. Charcoal cookers such as the Big Green Egg that are fairly new to the market take this classic style of cooking and transform your food. The BGE encases food in a ceramic shell made up of the same high fiber ceramics utilized by the space shuttle program. The ceramic’s purpose was to provide an extremely durable material that would reflect heat well and withstand immense temperatures, making them perfect for cooking. Small vents at the top and bottom of the unit create a draft through the grill, making it a high efficiency, low waste cooking option.
Appliances, fans, and lighting alone do not make an outstanding kitchen or living space, however. A great outdoor room designer will strive to achieve the effect of one continuous motif running throughout the outdoor living space and tying into the existing home. When moving from indoors to out, a properly designed and constructed outdoor kitchen seamlessly blends with both the home and surrounding landscape in color and texture to appear as though it was always part of the original design. Investing in outdoor living is one of the few home improvement options that adds intrinsic resale value to the residence, making it a perfect choice for today’s homeowner.
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