european outdoor kitchen room
indoor - outdoor outdoor kitchen in europe
This article was sent to me from a traveller through Finland.
Why not get innovative with your new outdoor kitchen by looking to other parts of the world for inspiration! Countries, such as Finland, which are accustomed to long and harsh winters but whose people love being in the outdoors and cooking together have gotten pretty creative with the way they set up their outdoor barbecues. Grilling houses, also known as barbeque huts, are small wooden rooms built in one’s yard and characterized by a central grill and benches all around for a group to enjoy a nice dinner together regardless of the weather! This cozy place is great for family time, a get together with friends, or a romantic escape for two. Is it chilly out but you don’t want to be stuck in the house? Well, build a fire and have some s’mores in your relaxing and beautiful little getaway! Or, perhaps you can utilize your own charming cottage when it is just too hot outside for some shade. Either way, this Finnish secret is now yours to build off of!
I thought a few of you may get a kick out of that. As outdoor rooms become more popular here in the states I have more of our custom outdoor kitchen customers asking for some kind of gazebo, pergola, tiki hut, etc.
custom outdoor kitchen and gazebo, granite and dry-stacked ledge stone
In Florida where we build custom outdoor kitchen grill islands and sell built in bbq grills and built in accessories we get some harsh weather. Of course we make the news when a hurricane comes through but we also have calm days that pick up gale force gusts. We lose a few tree limbs and our highways clog up with fear but the weather in Florida is tropical and sometimes unpredictable. For that reason the “simple” outdoor rooms that make the design shows and magazines do not work here in Florida. There are many places where archetectural foam can be used for columns and for cross pieces in gazebos and pergolas but a hurricane or gale force storm will ruin a structure built like that. In florida we have to build a much stronger structure when we build gazebos and pergolas. Tiki huts are built by the seminole indians and are secure. However the hurricane laws that keep us safe in a bad storm also make the Florida outdoor room very expensive as a lot more concrete and steel
outdoor kitchen grill island under construction
has to go into the ground to make the structure secure.
custom outdoor kitchen and tiki hut
Most of the custom outdoor kitchen grill islands we build here in florida are built up against the house so the overhang of the porch allows the home owner to continue grilling on the rain. At my house I just do not grill in the rain. I can see the idea in Finland because if I sit out a day or two for rain I do not go crazy. If I had to sit out for six months of snow, I would have to move to florida.
The outdoor kitchen above was built away from the home on a poured concrete deck that already existed when we were commissioned to build the custom grill island. We had to drill perfect holes in the deck to pour concrete in the ground for the tiki hut supports. Once they were in the ground and perfectly “plum” we could construct the custom outdoor kitchen around the tiki support. This provides a nice effect as the posts come up through the counter top of the grill island. Each side of the outdoor kitchen is approximately sixteen feet long.
custom granite fabrication in outdoor kitchen to wrap the tiki hut support post
This image shows the countertop. The important detail about the counter is that when granite slabs are custom fabricated for an outdoor kitchen there are seams that are mortared with a special grout made for hardening like granite. When posts are coming through the counter it makes these seams difficult to hide because it is obvious that the seam must allow the post to run through the counter. In order to mask the obvious seams we notched the granite from behind so there was no seam in the front of the post where the chef and guests would see it. Instead the notch left a gap behind the post, the width of the post which we fit with a small section of granite. In this image the light makes the area behind the post slightly off color because of the shadow of the post.
complete custom outdoor kitchen design image
The final outdoor kitchen is amazing. The funny thing abut this particular outdoor kitchen job is that the customer came to me becasue of a job we did for her neighbor. The neighbor built a gigantic mansion of a home in a lot that had been empty for many years. There was an outdoor kitchen up against the house with a built in 30″ infrared Solaire gas grill and another outdoor kitchen and bar in the yard built under a gazebo that was a mini replica of the house.
This customer had to look into this amazing backyard every time they were in their own backyard. They came to me to design something large enough to hold the attention of their guests and provide a lot of grilling area and serving area. There is a 42″ built in infrared Solaire gas grill with a combination tank drawer & utility drawers below the grill. There are two refrigerators, a sink, built in insulated ice bin, a lot of counter space and a lot of storage space below.
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