|
When it comes to Building Outdoor Kitchen Designs, All it takes is a Couple of Spare Weekends
America is moving Outdoors.
Building an Outdoor Kitchen can be a fun and exciting way to enchance your backyard cookouts.;Plus only spend a couple weekends designing your Outdoor Kitchen. Invite your friends over to help you out, bribe them by offering to cook the first meal.
Finding the plans and materials you need to build and design your Outdoor Kitchan are available online, from your favorite hardware store and through many famous home building television shows. Whenever you decide to build anything to spruce up your home, you are doing yourself a great service, as you are improving the;quality and resale value of your house.
Designing your Outdoor Kitchen
Outdoor cooking has long been favorite weekend past time, for family get togethers or entertaining friend, or just a weekend home alone.
Planning your Outdoor Kitchen according to your lifestyle, current backyard layout, and budget is key, with the empasis being on your plan. Do not find yourself frustrated and over budget because you did not think through all the aspects of your Outdoor Kitchen. Make an honest assessment of what you want and what you need to accomplish your goals
Creating an outdoor living space is no longer just about
increasing property values or impressing the occasional
guest. It is about creating a warm, welcoming, nurturing
place to come home to...a place that soothes the stress of out
daily life, and brings us closer to nature and spirit. And
we have to remember that decorating our home should not stop
inside our front door!
It doesn't have to be complicated to create your own outdoor
haven, and it doesn't have to cost a lot of money! Follow my
step by step instructions to create a personal outdoor space
from even the smallest nook, the tightest budget, and with
beginning skills.
Step one: Find a spot in your yard that could provide
privacy, a view, warm bathing sun...whatever most appeals to
you for your special place. This could be as little as your
overhang near your front door, a slice of ground in your
side yard, to a corner on top of your apartment roof! If
space is at a premium, look for areas where a shrub could be
removed, or a bar b que stored, or even a privacy screen
erected to provide your room. A small space is actually
easier to decorate, and more intimate!
Step Two: In order to give the sense and security of a
room, you need to provide some structure in the form of
walls. No, this isn't the construction phase! In fact, no
construction is needed for this room, just some creative
ideas! Walls can be created out of a row of planters,
existing wood fences or walls, living plants in the garden,
or a lattice panel supported by two posts. These walls need
not be solid structures, just the mere illusion of a wall to
stop the eye is enough. Use the patio or porch structure as
your walls, and add potted plants as needed to create
intimacy. Plant a trellis in a rectangular planter with some
morning glories or other fast growing vine, and you have
portable walls that can easily be moved to expand, or
enclose the space, depending on the occasion or use. If
your special place is away from the walls of porch or house,
cement two four by four posts into the ground with quick
setting cement (no mixing required, you do it right in the
hole!), and attach a simple lattice panel found at your home
improvement center.
Step Three:
Add a floor and ceiling! Floors in your outdoor room can
consist of anything from gravel to decking to concrete! If
your outdoor room just has dirt floors and money is tight,
add a bag of pea gravel or mulch to dress it up. Nylon throw
rugs hold up pretty well to the outdoors if they are out of
direct sun, but no fabric will last forever outdoors, so go
for the cheap ones you don't mind throwing away at the end
of the season. If you have concrete floors, paint an area
rug right on the concrete! Use foam brushes, mask out your
shape with tape, and try to choose natural colors that go
with the surrounding or your home's colors. Use stencils on
top of the base coat for a custom look. Use the chisel edge
of the foam brush to tap fringe at the end of each rug.
Seal with polyurethane formulated for outdoors, and it
should last years!
As far as ceilings go, the sky works for me! If you have an
overhead structure, consider growing a fast covering vine
for shade and ambience. Morning glories are a great annual
that fits the bill! You can also hang light fixtures from
beams or hooks...look for old chandeliers at garage sales you
can strip and transform to hold candles instead of
electricity!
Step Four: Now, we need to furnish the space. Consider what
you will be doing in your space...will you need a table for
dining, will it just be a private retreat for one, or will
you be entertaining guests here? If the area is covered such
as a porch or patio, feel free to bring out some interior
items, provided they are not too precious. This would be a
great place for thrift store finds. If all you can afford is
the cheap plastic stuff, never fear! Krylon makes a new
spray paint called Fusion that adheres to plastic without
priming...use that to customize your colors, then add
accessories to dress it up!
Step Five: The best fun there is...accessorizing! There is no
reason to treat your outdoor room much different from the
indoor ones, except you have to make allowances for weather.
Benches and seats cry out for fluffy pillows and cozy throws
for those cool nights out star watching. Outdoor fabric is
available, but I just use cheap twin sheets on sale, and
stitch up accessories I don't have to stress about! (Hint:
Use ties for your pillows if you live in an area with wind!)
Candles are ideal, or you can make your own firepit by
simply lining a debris free area with sand or gravel, then
edging it with stone or bricks. Remember to NEVER leave a
fire unattended, and always have a water source nearby. Make
paper mache sculptures and coat with linseed oil to
waterproof them, and use them on tabletops or hung from
ceiling beams. Containers of plants gathered in corners,
windchimes from the dollar shop hung off a branch, and my
favorite...birdhouses...are affordable and ideal for outdoors. I
pick up wooden birdhouses from the craft shop and decorate
them myself in different themes, then cluster them on
tables, or hang them in groups on garden walls.
The key here is to remember that creating a space to enjoy
Mother Nature is not only easy, it can be inexpensive and
fun! We all need that time to absorb what the outdoors has
to offer us, and no one should, or needs to be deprived of
that based on there income.
Kathy Wilson is an author, national columnist, and editor of
The Budget Decorator. For hundreds of free budget decorating
ideas and to sign up for her free online newsletter, visit
her at http://www.TheBudgetDecorator.com
|
