11 useful tips for summer kitchen arrangement

Summer kitchen, whether it's a simple gazebo with a barbecue or a solid structure with an oven and communications is a building of the first necessity in any area. After all, summer life is inconceivable without barbecue, gathering outside, and also without seasonal preservation of products. In this material, we presented 11 tips, 70 photo-ideas and several videos that will help you create your perfect summer kitchen.

What are the summer kitchens?

They can be divided into three types:

1. Open (for example, a gazebo-barbecue, terrace or patio) is a simple frame structure without insulation, often without walls (completely / partially) and even roofs. In fact, an open summer kitchen is a canopy or a gazebo with a barbecue / oven and a dining area, which can only be used in the summer. It is good in that it is comfortable and ready to cook, and there are, and to communicate with guests on fine summer days. Open kitchen is easier to build, faster and more economical than closed kitchen. In winter, a summer building with a canopy can be used as a storage for the economy. Disadvantages of the open kitchen can be called a limited period of use of the structure, as well as the lack of protection of furniture, appliances and the inhabitants of the kitchen from insects, rain, wind and sun. For the winter, all furniture and equipment will have to be cleaned in a dry room.

Classical summer kitchen with barbecue and oven in the courtyard of a country house in the Moscow region

1. Closed (for example, a grill house or a veranda) is a large covered building with an annex with insulation and glazing, sometimes even heated all year round. In fact, this is a real house, consisting of a kitchen and a dining room. Closed summer kitchen is good in that it is possible to cook and eat in it even in bad weather with rains and winds. Thanks to the walls and roof in this house you can build a full kitchen with a refrigerator, microwave, gas/electric stove, dishwasher, TV and other machinery. However, in the warm days of cooking in a closed kitchen will be just as hot as in the main house. Also keep in mind that its construction will cost you more than open construction.

• Grill house
• Grill house

• Interior grill house with a central location of the grill
• Interior grill house with a central location of the grill

1. Combined - this type of construction combines under one roof an open and covered room. Also in this category can be attributed to the summer kitchen, combined with a bath. Such a kitchen is good for everyone and has only a couple of minuses - doubly complicated design and increased budget.

Now let's look at the characteristics of separate and attached kitchens:

• Separate - are good because they allow you to place the hearth away from home, so that smells, smoke and noise do not penetrate the house. Building a detached summer kitchen makes sense if you have enough space on the site, if it has, say, a beautiful garden or pond, if you want to decorate the territory with a new pretty building.
• Adjoining the house - a terrace or veranda can become an excellent summer kitchen, because it is much easier and cheaper to build (one wall is already erected) or re-equipped, and move between the house and the annex is very convenient. True, the minus of the summer kitchen on the veranda / terrace is that smoke, heat, smell and stains from the stove will enter the living quarters, and part of the kitchen will remain through.

11 tips for building, arranging and designing a summer kitchen

Tip 1. Choose the best place

No matter how thoughtful and beautiful your summer kitchen might be, its unfortunate location on the site can complicate construction and further exploitation. Therefore, the place is the first thing to think about.

• From a practical point of view, it is more convenient when a summer kitchen is located near the house. So the inhabitants of the villa are easier to move between objects, and the engineering communications are cheaper, faster and easier. However, from an aesthetic point of view, a better place near the "attractions" of the site, which you can admire (for example, near a pond or garden). Also the bonuses are the following factors: protection from the wind, solitude from neighbors' eyes and proximity to trees that will be able to frame the building and create a coolness in it on hot days.

Summer kitchen at the cottage by the pond

• Unsuitable places for summer kitchen: near the road, garage, toilet, cesspools, compost pits, chicken coop and other places where your unpleasant smells, noise,

Tip 2. Grill, BBQ, oven or oven complex? Solve this issue before developing / selecting a summer kitchen project

• If the stove is the heart of the city's cuisine, then the grill, brazier or stove can be called the heart of the country kitchen. Before you start designing, think what kind of hearth you need: a grill, a brazier, an oven or a furnace complex? Is the grill stationary or portable? On coal or gas? With a chimney or without? What is the size and location of the source of fire? A lot depends on your choice - from the type of foundation to the shape of the roof. So, for example, for the erection of a stove, you will have to take care not only of the foundation, chimney and facing, but also to provide in the project a place for storing firewood.

To understand the peculiarities of different types of street focus, this article will help you.

Stationary gas grill built into the structure of bricks

Tip 3. Want to build a summer kitchen yourself quickly and cost-effectively? Build an open pavilion made of wood, with a light roof, without the walls and the stove

In this case, instead of a monolithic or pile-and-tape foundation, a columnar foundation can be dispensed with. The construction itself will consist of 4 (or more) supports and one- / two-slope roof with light roof, for example, polycarbonate. This is a very simple design, which you can really build with your own hands in just a couple of days and with a minimal budget.

In the next selection of photos presented options for the design of simple summer kitchens.

Simple summer kitchen at the cottage in the suburbs

For the construction of summer kitchen with their own hands it is easiest to use a tree. True, pine should prefer larch or teak, as they are stronger and, moreover, beautifully age

A simple summer kitchen from a bar with a gable roof

However, there is a way how to make the summer kitchen by hand even faster and cheaper. Fold the site of paving slabs, install one or two large garden umbrellas, arrange furniture, install a sink and portable grill and start cooking!

Tip 4. The presence of a cellar is not always justified

On the one hand, the cellar in the summer kitchen is very useful, because it is so convenient to store food in the refrigerator. On the other hand, its creation significantly increases the cost and complexity of construction. Especially if it is an open construction, because then the cellar will have to be insulated and protected from leaks. Even in the main house without a cellar and a cellar you can do without, what can we say about the summer kitchen.

Council 5. The summer kitchen, the facade of the house and the landscape should be decorated in a single key

Choosing or developing a draft of the summer kitchen, thinking over the options for its decoration, keep in mind that it should be combined with the facade of the house and other buildings on the site. So you will create a real dacha complex and achieve a sense of order. It is not necessary that this is a 100% coincidence in color, decoration, architecture and style, but objects must echo. Below in the photo is an example of a modern summer kitchen on the terrace of a wooden house from a bar.

• Design project of summer kitchen-patio in Malakhovka
• Design project of summer kitchen-patio in Malakhovka
• Design project of summer kitchen-patio in Malakhovka
• Design project of summer kitchen-patio in Malakhovka
• Design project of summer kitchen-patio in Malakhovka

• The closer the summer kitchen is to the house, the more similar should be both buildings.
• If the site has an object that is knocked out of the "general picture", say, a hastily constructed sauna, then the design of the summer kitchen can be planned in such a way that it combines features and baths and houses. So some chaotic development will be corrected.

Council 6. Sex should be particularly practical

In the open kitchen floor can be sheathed:

• A wooden board, covered with oil or wax for outdoor work (the varnish will do worse, since in time it will start to crack and require renewal of the coating).

Street kitchen in the country house with a floor finish from the deck board of a larch covered with a matte azure on the basis of alkyd resins

• Terraced board (made of wood-polymer composite).

• Stone or special street tiles. True, such a floor requires a strong foundation and a large budget.

• Finishing the summer kitchen with a stone is durable and beautiful, but it requires a solid foundation and a large budget
• Finishing the summer kitchen with a stone is durable and beautiful, but it requires a solid foundation and a large budget

In a closed kitchen you can use the same materials, as well as traditional ceramic tiles and porcelain stoneware.

• By the way, we recommend to refrain from too dark a floor, because on it crumbs, dirt and puddles of water will be especially noticeable.
• If the floor of the open kitchen will have a small slope (1-2 cm), the rainwater that gets inside will drain itself.

Tip 7. Stick to the rule of the "working triangle" when planning a kitchen

In the arrangement of kitchens there is a rule of the so-called. "Working triangle", which consists in the fact that the three working zones (sink, stove and refrigerator) should be in reasonable proximity to each other, forming a triangle. Ideally, it should be equilateral. Thanks to this arrangement of zones, the kitchen is the most convenient.

• In the summer kitchen, this rule is not always applicable in its pure form, because it can be too small, narrow, elongated, irregular in form, instead of a plate in it the stove, a grill or a brazier is used most often, and the refrigerator and at all can not be. Nevertheless, try to get as close as possible to the ideal and not build up working areas in one line.

So, for example, if in your summer kitchen the source of fire is a brazier and it is carried out beyond its limits, then the washing and preparation area of ​​the products should be installed as close as possible to the exit.

• If the kitchen is small, then you can build a kitchen L-shaped. For a narrow kitchen (for example, on the veranda), a two-row layout may be appropriate. AT square kitchen the most successfully fit the U-shaped layout.

• 
• Kitchen with a peninsula-bar
• U-shaped layout

If your summer kitchen is only possible single-row layout, then make it more convenient to help a compact mobile island / peninsula.

Tip 8. The dining area should be at least 2 m from the barbecue / stove

Ideally, the distance between the dining table and the barbecue / oven / grill should be about 3 m. In this case, smoke, heat and smells will not bother the holidaymakers, and chips, ashes and sparks will not spoil the look of the dining area.

Tip 9. Use furniture that can withstand street conditions

Kitchen set and dining furniture in the summer kitchen should withstand high humidity and temperature changes, therefore, from luxurious wooden furniture, furniture from laminated chipboard / MDF, as well as furniture with fabric or leather upholstery should be discarded.

But for the summer kitchen the following options are suitable:

• Veneered furniture from MDF;
• Wooden garden furniture (especially suitable for folding structures, which at the end of the summer season can easily be moved to the pantry);
• Forged outdoor furniture;
• Stainless steel furniture (if you do not want to clean the kitchen set for the winter period, choose stainless steel furniture);
• Wicker furniture made of natural vine, rattan or plastic;
• Plastic furniture (eg, polycarbonate).

Below is an example of a summer terrace design with an all-season stainless steel set.

• Stove in this kitchen on a light and safe gas bottle
• Stove in this kitchen on a light and safe gas bottle
• Stove in this kitchen on a light and safe gas bottle
• Stove in this kitchen on a light and safe gas bottle
• Stove in this kitchen on a light and safe gas bottle
• Stove in this kitchen on a light and safe gas bottle

In this collection of photos you can see the ideas of furnishing the summer dining room.

• Wooden and glass dining furniture
• Furniture for recreation area made of woven plastic under rattan
• Wicker chairs made of rattan
• Garden furniture in the dining area
• Table and chairs of woven plastic under rattan

Tip 10. Distribute light sources evenly

Often summer residents forget to give enough attention to lighting the summer kitchen. But it is with his help that you can create real coziness and comfort.

• Ideally, artificial light in the evening should be soft, uniform and multilevel. For this, the room should be illuminated not by one chandelier, but by several lamps: floor / hanging lights, wall sconces, spot lights, hangers, table lamps, floor lamps and / or garlands of light bulbs.
• With the help of light, you can divide the space into zones, for example, in the kitchen and the dining room. So you will have the opportunity during the evening meals to hide the working area in the dark and light only a beautiful table.

• To make it comfortable for you to cook in the evenings, set the backlight directly above the working area. If you limit yourself to the lamp installed behind it, during the cooking your back will close the light.
• For lighting an open summer kitchen, metal, plastic, wooden and wicker fixtures with additional protection from water are suitable. Ideally, it should be garden lights.

• These photos show an example of lighting a summer kitchen-gazebo
• These photos show an example of lighting a summer kitchen-gazebo

• Around the summer kitchen and along the path you can install lights that work on solar panels. During the day they accumulate energy, and in the evening they automatically turn on. True, they give light a little, but on cloudy days they do not charge at all.

Tip 11. The more green around the building, the better

• With a hedge, pergolas or curtains with curly plants, you can make the summer kitchen more secluded, close the review to the unsightly places of the site.
• Decorative plantations, flower beds and shrubs can denote the boundaries of the zones, hide the foundation and simply decorate the summer kitchen and the overall view of the territory.

• Well, if the plants will decorate and the interior. For example, it can be tall trees in pots and topiary.
• To save trees on the site, summer kitchen can be built even around or bypassing trees. The following photos clearly show this technique.

And some more beautiful photos for inspiration

Finally, we suggest that you get the idea of ​​design from a selection of the most original summer kitchens of country cottages and private houses.

This summer kitchen is redone from the former car canopy

This kitchen is interesting because the work area and grill in it are hidden in a niche

Summer kitchen made of bricks

Nice cottage complex from a covered living room, open kitchen and a terrace

• Kitchen with a stove-fireplace with a through furnace
• Kitchen with a stove-fireplace with a through furnace

And finally, we represent the summer kitchen, in which there are a whole bunch of interesting details, namely: a height-adjustable marquise, a balcony, a sandstone bar, imitation of stained glass windows, and a grill with a fireplace effect.

And for those who plan to build a summer kitchen with their own hands, we recommend that you see the following video selection.