It’s a real epic show and tell today – our incredible outdoor kitchen, which felt like it went up in a matter of weeks (and kinda did). We’ve already had so many hangouts here, a 100+ neighborhood event, and so many more are scheduled this summer and fall. We feel incredibly grateful for this kitchen/life, and I’m so excited to show you and share it with anyone who wants to come over (literally, we invited our entire local elementary school, LOL). Our kitchen was designed by RTA Outdoor Living (Ready To Assemble), and I couldn’t love it any more than I do – the customer service, design expertise, speed, and assembly ease were all extremely dialed in. A quick recap: we worked 1:1 with a designer, told them our size and our needs/wants, we chose the finishes and they laid it all out, created the drawings for approval/tweaking, then off it shipped. Of course, no major home project is that simple, but this one felt so seamless and fast, with the major things being taken care of by RTA and my brother’s contracting company, Afore Construction. If you want to read all about the process, head HERE (today’s post is all reveal, all day, but that one breaks it down more). While we all know you can’t have “fast, cheap, AND good”, if you are like me and want “fast and good” then RTA might be a company for you to check out (and I do mean really good/high quality).
We entertain a lot, A LOT, hosting many multi-family BBQs, potlucks, and playdates, so we really went for it. We chose a U-shaped covered kitchen that would allow people to sit on both sides, while also allowing many people to cook/prep in the middle. We had to shove the whole kitchen in between the big pretty oak tree and our well house (unmovable), which meant that it’s kinda skinny but long, but it totally works. The layout allows for all the appliances that we wanted (36″ grill, griddle, sink, fridge, burners, and kegerator) as well as dry storage for serving and prepping. And the deck is big enough to allow for easy flow.
The Goal – A Long-Lasting, Fully Contained Kitchen
Once we realized the possibilities and thought really long term (a potential future event space), we didn’t want to regret not having the contained function that we knew we’d use. I wouldn’t say it’s a commercial kitchen, but it sure could be that if needed. We skipped the pizza oven and any tragers or smokers, and opted to make sure that we could cook what we love to cook and store everything we needed to eat and serve out here (no running inside).
As A Reminder, Here’s How The RTA Kitchen Design Process Works
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My Quick Advice If You Are Thinking About An Outdoor Kitchen:
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A huge thanks to RTA (Daniel and Pete FTW), Ken and Nick (Afore Construction), Dennis’ 7 Dees for all the landscaping, Monrovia for helping us get the most mature plants, Big Trees Today for some of our big trees and I haven’t even talked about the corbels (thank you, Purl) and future pendants yet (that didn’t arrive in time). We aren’t done talking about this kitchen yet – and you bet there will be a lot of BBQ reels out here this summer – Barb and Elisha included. xx
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*Photos by Kaitlin Green