Designing an Outdoor Kitchen

If one pulls up to Dave Hunter's home in Sacramento, Calif., at the right time – and that's at least a couple of evenings during the week and on weekends – the aroma of grilling food will be in the air. It won't be coming from your standard barbecue grill, though, but from his beautiful new outdoor kitchen.

Outdoor kitchens range in cost from about $3,000 to more than $30,000 and can include stovetop-style burners, griddles, roasting spits, sinks, refrigerators, storage space for dishes and cooking gear, low counters for prep work, bar-height counters for guests, stereo systems and more.

Dave and his wife, Leslie, have been improving the backyard of their house since moving into it three years ago.

Two years ago, they added a swimming pool and surrounded it with a stylized concrete deck. Last year, right next to the pool, Dave built the outdoor kitchen with the help of friends.

The Hunters' V-shaped, 14-foot outdoor kitchen is built above a paver stone deck next to the pool.

The star component is an Australian-made grill. An island housing a sink, refrigerator, storage compartment and stereo system completes their outdoor setup.

The Hunters estimate the outdoor kitchen cost them about $8,000, but "it probably would have been twice that if we had had to pay for labor," says Leslie, an accountant.

"I priced a premade island setup that I sort of liked, and it was over $10,000," Dave says. "That wouldn't have included the deck, and it wouldn't have been nearly as nice."

It isn't necessary to invest as much money or labor into an outdoor kitchen as the Hunters did.