Bergen County, Northern NJ – 2013- “Top 50 Pool Builder” Advises how to enhance the design & construction of your luxury outdoor kitchen & living areas.
Luxury Outdoor Kitchen Design & Construction- Bergen County, Northern NJ
Bergen County, Northern NJ – 2013- “Top 50 Pool Builder” Advises how to enhance the design & construction of your luxury outdoor kitchen & living areas.
While there are numerous options available on the contemporary market which can transform your large or small landscape space into one of beauty and function, there is one item that will be the “exclamation point” to your custom inground pool or outdoor luxury living space; like an outdoor kitchen. Regardless of how popular your pool might be, nothing truly brings family together with such incredible style as does a well-designed outdoor kitchen. Outdoor kitchens can provide every single amenity that is included in your house kitchen, and be just as beautiful, and trendy. The amenities that your outdoor kitchen can include are grills, side burners, warming draws, refrigerators, dishwashers, sinks, and any other feature that your indoor kitchen displays! Its time to take your love of the outdoors and combine it with your other favorite hobbies; eating, cooking, and spending time with family and friends.
Our Landscape Architects suggest the following features to significantly enhance your outdoor kitchen:
Seating is often that rather overlooked detail, which is truly the key to your outdoor living area being a success. The comfort and setting of your outdoor seating area, if implemented correctly, will naturally draw your friends and family to the location, to enjoy the time together. If the seats provided are not well thought out, are uncomfortable, or awkwardly spaced, people will tend to avoid those areas. Bar seating for example, provides great access from both sides of the counter, yet it is highly recommended to not have bar seating directly behind the grill so guests do not get overwhelmed with smoke. Also while designing your outdoor bar area note that swivel bar stools require more room than standard stools in order to comfortably rotate without hitting your knees or other chairs. It is also worthwhile to have a full table nearby where a group can sit and eat a meal comfortably and still interact with the people at the bar. We also recommended to have an umbrella, pergola or strategically placed trees, which will enable you to enjoy your luxury outdoor amenities even during those blistering summer days, by providing some shade to the area.
A Backsplash is an item that can make a tremendous aesthetic difference to your outdoor kitchen area, by creating height variations and depth. It also adds an element of style, which can be enhanced by using materials such as mosaic features and glass tiles. For its practical use, it can serve the same purpose as backsplash does on an indoor kitchen, which is to provide outlets for appliances, a location for light fixtures and audio speakers. While a backsplash may not seem like a big deal, the view of a kitchen without backsplash, and one with an aesthetically pleasing designed backsplash, is enormous.
Proper lighting is also an aspect that you will certainly appreciate having installed in your new outdoor kitchen and dining area. Lighting will not only show off the style and intricacies of your outdoor living set, but it will also give you the option of enjoying your outdoor living area late into the night—not just during the daylight. Enjoying a hearty meal with your family or simply spending time with friends on a summer evening is guaranteed to be an incredibly enjoyable experience. Each outdoor kitchen/living area should be properly designed to ensure the lights intergrade properly into the space. Lights that are the wrong height, that are too bright, or call a lot of attention to themselves, can be a detriment to the surroundings. For outdoor structures we generally recommend concealed accent lighting, which generally creates enough light to make a space functional and safe to cook or dine, while not being bright enough to take away from the overall visual beauty of your outdoor BBQ or kitchen space.
Your luxury outdoor living does not have to end once your meal has been finished. Why not watch some TV on your large outdoor television set? Outdoor television sets are a recent commodity, which often come equipped with a hydraulic lift that enables the set to be stored under the ground while the television is not being utilized. The hydraulic lift is extraordinarily beneficial, because it allows you to have full access to the television at any time, while also preserving the view of your landscape when the TV is not in use. These state-of the-art products are guaranteed to impress your family and friends, and can be purchased with a surround sound system, that will give all those watching that genuine “movie theatre” experience. Your love of the outdoors and your fondness for television no longer has to clash; the outdoor television set instantly solves that conflict.
Further, if you live in the northeast, you have experienced how the weather can start getting quite chilly around October, or even as early as September. You can combat this chilly weather and continue to enjoy your outdoor living amenities long into the fall and even the winter with a patio radiant heating system, which heats your outdoor patio stones using either electricity, or hot water. The hot water route operates by having pipes installed between the stone and slab of the patio, which are linked to an external boiler system that heats the water running through the pipes. The warm water is in essence what heats up the patio stone. This option is more expensive upfront, but is significantly more efficient in the long run. The electric option utilizes wires instead of pipes, which produce energy required to heat the patio stones. This feature is cheaper to install than the hot water option, but will cost quite a bit more in the long run, due to its high energy usage.
Overall, the above-mentioned features will all enhance your landscape design and outdoor living experience, and will increase the level of functionality in your outdoor kitchen area. There are a host of other options that can be incorporated into an outdoor kitchen/living area, but we just wanted to mention some of the most popular, and worthwhile features. If you have any questions at all about designing or installing an outdoor kitchen/living area, please Email Christie@plantnj.com or call our landscape architecture office and ask for Bill Moore, at 201-785-0800.
Congratulations to the entire Cipriano team for earning the 2013 Northeast Spa and Pool Association, “NESPA,” Best Pool Design & Construction Award for the violin pool project in Bedford NY!