Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet predicts outdoor kitchen trends

It's the time of year when everyone is making their predictions for 2009 - and, as the leader in outdoor kitchens, Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet has something to say as well. Trends in outdoor kitchens typically begin at the most upscale end of the market and then permeate their way down. Because of this, Kalamazoo is uniquely positioned to see where the design trends are headed.
Bringing the Outside In
Outdoor kitchens began as a trend of bringing the indoors outside, but now homeowners are bringing the outdoor kitchen inside, or at least under a roof. More and more outdoor kitchens are sheltered by an architectural structure - either attached to the home or as a free-standing pavilion. A full roof on an outdoor kitchen provides a number of advantages:
- Keeping out the rain
- A convenient attachment point for outdoor kitchen lighting which is often a design challenge
- Hanging ceiling fans cool the kitchen in the summer and help discourage insects
- A roof partially contains the heat from radiant heaters so the kitchen is more comfortable in the spring and fall or even winter
- Curtain-like roll-down screens can help with insects
- A roof can keep die-hard outdoor cooks from having to clear off snow before grilling in the winter
Kalamazoo is seeing a significant increase in outdoor kitchens designed under a sheltering structure. The first wave was pergolas, which provided not only shade but also increased definition of the space. Pergolas have now saturated the market all the way to entry-level outdoor kitchens and prefabricated spaces. Full roofs have taken over at the upscale end of the market; some even have a retracting roof.
Features Abound
At the infancy of this still-growing trend, an "outdoor kitchen" was really just a built-in grill. Built-in grills have predictably filtered down to the less expensive end of the market, while the top end of the market has continued to add functionality. Even some of the least expensive outdoor kitchens feature beverage chillers and a sink these days. Therefore, Kalamazoo continues to see the trickling down effect and new luxuries added at the top end. Here are a few of the features to be seeing this year in upscale kitchens, and at more modest levels in years to come:
- Separate wine chillers for whites versus reds, each maintaining the right temperatures
- Freezers and freezer drawers: with the right units, ice cream can be served from the outdoor -kitchen even in a Tucson July
- Keg tappers serving multiple kinds of beer with up to three taps on Kalamazoo 48" units
- Pizza ovens continuing to grow in popularity
- Wok burners are broadening the types of outdoor cooking, as are lobster and crab boilers
- Specialized storage and a broader variety of outdoor kitchen cabinets

ReadMore