Outdoor Kitchens & Entertaining Spaces

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I’m sure now that Summer is almost over, you’ve had time to reflect over what you WISH you had built in your backyard. Yeah, me too!

On my recent trip to the Northwest, I had the opportunity to visit some home shows and look at the newest and greatest trends in housing design.  

What I really had my eye on was the outdoor kitchens and entertaining spaces!  I thought I’d share them with you. (I apologize for the picture quality, these were taken with my cellphone!)

I liked this whole covered area along with the fireplace and the overhead fan.  Great for warmer Summer nights and cooler Fall nights!   

This next house had a nana door that opened up to a large covered area.  In the picture below, this was the grill and food prep area.

…which then if you turned around from the grill you were facing this seating area with a fire place and tv.  You can see on the right the big open wall which can be enclosed with the nana door.  The ceiling had ceiling fans which help keep the flies away!

Another house had this pizza oven.  Love it!  

What I liked about this next house below is the outdoor brick fireplace.  You don’t see brick fireplaces too frequently nowadays, so I’m kind of hoping it may make a comeback.  The area was also enclosed and had overhead heaters behind the seating area.

Okay, so this next picture isn’t an outdoor kitchen OR an entertaining space, but it was just too cute not to include!  How cute is this garden? Love the raised flowerbeds, hanging flower baskets on the gate, and the fence to keep pests away.

Another variation of an outdoor kitchen. Fireplace is natural gas.  This covered outdoor area actually had skylights so it felt more outdoorsy then just sitting outside with a roof over your head!

Onto our next house… it had a large covered outdoor area.  One wall had a chain-link curtain to keep bugs away.  It was really nice and large.

Now, if you turned left you would see this pass-through from the kitchen with a bar.  I would’ve moved the chairs and made it a buffet area.

This is looking in the other direction.  A nice fireplace with a cough.  you can see the chain link curtain still.

The next house had this built-in dining area… but what’s cool about it is the firepit right in the middle of the table! Perfect for those chilly nights!!  I thought of roasting marshmallow’s over it… but then thought of the mess I’d make trying to clean melted marshmallow off those glass beads!

This last house had a covered kitchen/entertaining area between their garage and house.  What was interesting about this area was this sliding barn-type door that you could slide in front of the grill, refridgerator, and prep area and lock up!  Great if you are storing things you don’t want to get stolen!  

Touring these homes certainly gave me ideas for my dream outdoor kitchen/entertaining area.  What did you wish you had outside this Summer?

What did you like?  

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