Outdoor Living
Planning an outdoor kitchen
What should I decide first when building an outdoor kitchen?
Pick your appliances first. Every grill and drawer has its own cutout dimensions, and the structure gets built to those numbers — not the other way around.
The order is the job
An outdoor kitchen is masonry built around appliances and utilities. Masonry does not move once it's set, so almost every expensive mistake here is a sequencing mistake.
Choose the grill last and you either rebuild an opening or buy whichever appliance happens to fit the hole you already made.
Utilities have to arrive first
Gas line, a dedicated circuit, and often water and drain all need to land at exact positions before anything is built over them.
That's coordination work that happens during the scope. Retrofitting a gas line under a finished stone counter is a demolition job.
Counter space is what you'll actually miss
People plan the grill and forget the landing space either side of it. You need somewhere to set a tray down before the food goes on and after it comes off.
Overhang matters too, if you want anyone sitting at it. A counter with no knee room is a shelf.
Cover it or don't, but decide now
Whether the kitchen sits under a patio cover changes the structure, the electrical, and the appliances that make sense.
Adding a roof over it later means building around something already permanent.
Masonry doesn't move. Decide before it's set.