Hi all,
Hoping I can pick your brains about the design / inclusions within what we are planning to be an outdoor kitchen for our home.
We currently have a foundation for a conservatory - roughly 4m x 4m square. We have plenty of internal space in the rest of the house & wouldn't use a conservatory & so have decided to do something 'different' with the foundation. Given how much we are cooking on our Kamado Joe, we are thinking that an outdoor kitchen type thing would be a good addition. The aim being to make cooking outdoors during winter months (and during our normally wet summer months) more palatable. Whilst I cooked on it all through the winter just gone, frankly it was painful at times due to driving rain!
So, ideas so far:
- oak wood beam design with brick to match the front of our house;
- one solid wall of brick with a narrow window slit above to block views of our really attractive (not) outside boiler, rear of shed, gas bottles, oil tank etc etc
- open walls (from counter top upwards) on the other two walls to make it more of an outdoors kitchen, rather than simply another kitchen on the side of the house;
- we're thinking of adding a Big Joe to the line up - there have been quite a few times where we have wanted to be cooking things at very different temperatures at the same time e.g. smoking versus grilling or baking;
- no roof design shown, still working on that, but likely to be oak beam, open to the rafters affair with an extension that goes out over the two walls which are open to the elements to provide a shielding from everything except the worst of driving rain;
- it will be pretty easy to hook up lighting, electrics & hot / cold water as this backs onto our existing kitchen;
So other than housing the two Kamados & their accessories, would there be anything else you would design or build in?
We've been thinking about a pizza oven as one component for example, or a fireplace more for atmosphere than cooking on with cooking either side. I'm also keen on trying a WSM given how many people use these for low 'n' slows to compare with using a Kamado.
Not sure how the smoke will exit / effect the internal roof - probably need to design in an exit although alot of the veranda designs I've seen in the USA / Australia do not have this.
We don't have a huge budget for this as we're undertaking some pretty significant work in other areas of our home. So the reality is this will happen over time - with the walls & roof happening first this year, & then afterwards cabinets, sink, cupboards, pizza oven / XL Kamado etc afterwards.
Really appreciate any thoughts or experience people have with this.
Cheers,
Simon
A couple of designs I've done myself in Google SketchUp:
View from our existing kitchen:
View from our rear garden: