Choosing a Furniture Palette: Tips and Tricks

If you love eating outdoors in the summer and fire up your barbie every chance you get, then you may be thinking about building an outdoor kitchen. You're tired of running to and from your kitchen to fetch the stuff you need when you're cooking outdoors, and an al fresco cooking area seems a good solution.

As well as giving your barbie a permanent home, an outdoor kitchen can contain other useful things. What are good things to have in this space?

1. A Fridge 

You can save yourself a lot of toing and froing by installing a fridge in your outdoor kitchen. You can just use the fridge to keep your drinks cool. Or, you can use it to keep food fresh and close to hand. A fridge with a small freezer compartment may also be useful for storing ice cream and icy poles for the kids.

2. A Sink

Adding a sink to an outdoor kitchen is a great idea if you have the space. This gives you a supply of water outside for drinking and cooking. You also get somewhere to rinse off or wash dishes after meals. Plus, an outdoor sink gives you somewhere to wash your hands if you get covered in barbeque sauce.

3. Work Space

It's always handy to have a work space in an alfresco kitchen. You can use this space to prepare food and drinks. Or, it's a convenient place to store your barbie food before it goes on the grill.

4. Storage Space

You may not have room in your main kitchen to store all your barbie stuff and the dishes, glasses and cutlery you use when you eat outside. You may also be a bit tired of having to carry loads of stuff out each time you have an alfresco meal only to have to take it all indoors again when you're done.

Adding a cupboard or two is useful. You can use this space to store all your outdoor eating kit, barbie tools and other useful items like blankets for when the weather gets a bit chilly.

5. A Spare Power Point

It may be worth adding a power point to your outdoor kitchen. This is useful if you need to use something that needs to be plugged in. For example, you could keep a kettle in the area so you can make yourself a cuppa whenever you're using the space.

You may not have a massive amount of space for an outdoor kitchen. So, for the best results, ask your custom kitchens company for advice on how to make the most of the space you do have.