Questions to Ask Before Planning Your Florida Outdoor Kitchen
If your first question about your new outdoor kitchen is “Do you want your steak medium or rare?” thanks for asking, but you’re getting ahead of yourself.
First, some planning. And that means some key questions. Some you should ask yourself. Others are for your cool and creative outdoor kitchen designer.
What outdoor kitchen design questions should you ask before you dive in? How much do you want to spend? How big should it be? What kind of appliances do you need out there? How do you make sure your kitchen will stand up to Florida’s challenging weather conditions? What lighting do you need?
Let’s learn more about Florida outdoor kitchen planning, including:
Outdoor Kitchen Design Questions for You and Your Designer
If your landscape designer doesn’t bombard you with questions before designing your outdoor kitchen, you hired the wrong designer. A good designer could beat a defense attorney when it comes to asking questions.
Who do you cook for? What foods do you like? Are you the Thanksgiving house? Do you prefer cabinets or drawers for storage? What’s your favorite color? How much ice do you go through at a party?
Then, you’ll have some questions for your designer, too, which might include, “Am I nuts for building an outdoor kitchen?”
Absolutely not. You’ll love this great addition to your outdoor living space. We’ll make sure of it. But first, a few questions:
1. How Much Do I Want to Spend?
Only you can answer this one, but if you need some guidance, most Tropical Gardens customers
spend between $25,000 and $35,000 on their outdoor kitchens.
The most basic outdoor kitchen will typically have a grill with cabinets on each side for workspace and storage. Add a granite countertop with a couple feet on each side so you can set down your tongs and platter of sizzling fajitas and you’ll spend about $8,000.
But before you say, “Cool, that’s actually less than I thought,” don’t get too excited.
Most homeowners want more features than that as they do their Florida outdoor kitchen planning, for an impressive outdoor kitchen that meets their outdoor living and entertaining needs. There are lots of tempting options out there.
2. How Big Should My Outdoor Kitchen Be?
This question leads to a few more questions:
How big is your family?
How many people do you usually cook for?
Do you entertain a lot? How many people usually come over?
How much outdoor space do you need for other uses, like a pool or maybe an outdoor spa area?
One thing we can tell you from experience: most people discover their outdoor kitchen is actually too small, and they wish they had planned for more space as they pondered their outdoor kitchen ideas.
Make sure you have enough counter space, drawers and cabinet storage. Otherwise you’ll constantly be ducking back and forth to your indoor kitchen to get the stray utensils or serving items you need. You’ll get your daily steps in, but it’s kind of a pain.
3. What Should My Outdoor Kitchen Layout Look Like?
The answer to this one depends on the space you have available and your personal preference.
But we often recommend a classic galley-style outdoor kitchen with a grill and sink on one side and seating on the other side with a handy refrigerator.
If you have lots of space and welcome extra help in the kitchen, a U-shaped layout works well.
Do you like the idea of separating your cooking area from your seating? (Maybe you don’t want everybody noticing your sloppy sauce skills.) An L-shaped layout works great for this.
Or maybe you love the idea of centering everything around a multipurpose island, combining prep space, storage and dining in one handy area.
4. What Appliances Should I Include?
This is a fun one. The answer depends on how you like to cook, the foods you serve, how you entertain and how much time you’ll spend out there. (Sorry, more questions.)
There are lots of great outdoor kitchen appliances to choose from, including pizza ovens, smokers, and ice makers.
But when it comes to Florida outdoor kitchen planning, everybody starts with a stainless steel grill. This is a must. Stainless steel is long-lasting, durable, and weather-resistant, making it a great choice for your Sarasota outdoor kitchen.
Choose the grill features that make sense for the way you cook, eat and entertain.
You might want a sear zone for grilling steak. This separate, high-intensity heating area produces faster, hotter cooking temperatures that caramelize a steak into a work of art and lock in its juices.
Love grilled fish? You’ll want a flat top area on your grill to perfect your swordfish steaks with orange glaze.
If you grill a lot of chicken, consider a rotisserie accessory. Bonus: watching it spin is free entertainment.
If you’re the Sunday morning breakfast chef, you might love the flat surface of a griddle, perfect for eggs, bacon, and your famous blueberry chocolate chip pancakes.
Aside from the grill, other appliances make sense based on your own favorite foods, cooking style and entertaining needs, from a pizza oven to an ice maker. We’ll get to the bottom of it.
We ask a lot of outdoor kitchen planning questions and use your answers to help us design your perfect outdoor kitchen with the best outdoor kitchen appliances to suit your needs.
5. What Kind of Outdoor Kitchen Lighting Will I Need?
If you plan to use your outdoor kitchen after dark, lighting has to be part of your Florida outdoor kitchen design, unless you want to entertain your guests with a fun game of “is your chicken raw, or burned?”
You’ll need task lighting for cooking and prep areas. Overhead lighting for atmosphere. Strip lighting along counters to illuminate appliances, cabinets and drawers. Path lights for safety.
Don’t forget festive bistro lights, because why not? Everybody looks good beneath bistro lights.
Fun fact: you can control your outdoor kitchen lighting with your smartphone to easily switch up the vibe.
6. Will My Outdoor Kitchen Stand Up to the Florida Weather?
Good question. Your Florida outdoor kitchen will have to stand up to moisture, searing sun, wind and extreme temperatures. And possibly demanding guests requesting pineapple margaritas, but that’s your problem.
Luckily, there are sturdy materials up for the challenge.
Among the latest options in Florida outdoor kitchen ideas: High-Density Polyethylene cabinets (HDPE, for short.) They're waterproof, UV-resistant and rust-resistant. Think of them as a super sturdy plastic.
They have the same high-end look of indoor kitchen cabinets, but they’re made from marine-grade HDPE, so these sturdy cabinets stand strong in challenging Florida weather conditions.
Bonus: these HDPE cabinets are made locally, by American Outdoor Cabinets in Bradenton, a Florida custom outdoor kitchen builder.
Top those HDPE cabinets with sturdy granite countertops. Granite stands up to heat and water and resists scratches.
7. What Are My Options for Shade?
Make sure your Florida outdoor kitchen planning includes shade, unless you want your shrimp fajitas to sizzle right there on the countertop, no grill required.
Consider a couple great options:
Pergolas
Vertical posts support overhead cross beams or slats that filter harsh sunlight while defining your outdoor kitchen space.
Your pergola can provide a bit more shade if your builder adds more wood overhead, spacing the slats closer together.
Feel free to add retractable canvas for extra cover or twinkling lights for evening ambiance.
Tiki Huts
A tiki is among the great Florida outdoor kitchen ideas, with palm-thatched roofs that offer authentic tropical style, sun protection and shelter from the rain.
Plus, it’s fun to say, “Let’s go have drinks and snacks at the tiki.”
8. How Can I Use Landscape Plants in My Outdoor Kitchen?
This is a great question lots of people forget to ask. It’s easy to get caught up in granite counter choices and pizza oven options. But remember, your outdoor kitchen is part of your outdoor living space, and that should always include green and colorful plants.
We have lots of ideas, from using tropical plants or palms to create privacy for your outdoor kitchen to growing colorful flowering vines up your pergola posts. Add a fragrant herb garden for sniffing, cooking, and plopping fresh mint into your mojito.
Outdoor Kitchen Designers Come to the Rescue
You can ask all the questions you can think of, and still forget something. That’s why we’re here.
We’ll make sure we get a real handle on how you’ll use your outdoor kitchen, what you’ll cook, how many people you’ll serve.
We’ll even take a peek at your indoor kitchen, to get some clues about what you might need outside.
Ready for a Sarasota Outdoor Kitchen You’ll Love? Talk to Us
One more question: Are you ready to dive in? This will be fun.
An outdoor kitchen makes entertaining easy. It gets you outside. Everything tastes better out there.
Not sure where to start? It can feel kind of overwhelming. Let’s do this together.
Tropical Gardens offers Sarasota outdoor kitchen services with design and build teams who know how to boost your outdoor life with a perfect outdoor kitchen — and everything else you need to really enjoy it.
Let’s get started. We’ll help you figure it all out.
Give us a call or fill out our form today! Our team of Sarasota designers can’t wait to help you design the perfect outdoor kitchen. Save us a seat under the tiki.
