By ddmg Construction • Design • Landscape • Outdoor Kitchen • Tips and Tricks • 0 Comments

9 Essential Outdoor Kitchen Design Tips

Entertaining family and friends is one of the best aspects of home ownerships. Everyone heads over to your place for an afternoon or evening of food, drinks, and good times. The host often comes away from these gatherings feeling exhausted and left out.

It’s hard to mingle when you’re stuck cooking and cleaning all day and night. No one wants to come inside and chat with the chef while a summer barbeque is going on in the backyard. Many homeowners find themselves away from all the action when hosting get-togethers.

The outdoor kitchen solves this problem and many more. Here are 9 essential Olathe outdoor kitchen design tips:

1) Keep good kitchen design principles

An outdoor kitchen is still a kitchen. You still must keep kitchen design principles intact. The cold areas, wet areas, hot areas, and dry areas must all work in unison. Make sure you allocate enough space for each.

2) Set and store

You don’t want to be continually heading back inside when cooking outside. Your outdoor kitchen design must include enough space to place and store everything you’ll need to prepare. This means ample countertop and refrigerator space.

3) Start with the floor

When beginning your outdoor kitchen design, you’ll want to start from the ground up. Plan the layout of your kitchen with the floor in mind. Pay attention to different weather elements you may encounter and select a durable flooring type before moving forward.

4) Outdoor materials and equipment

All materials in your outdoor kitchen should be made with outdoor materials. Stainless steel is great for an outdoor kitchen. Concrete countertops are long lasting. Even if your kitchen doesn’t bare all the elements due to certain factors – you’ll want to select materials that could.

5) Build it to blend in

One of the most valuable outdoor kitchen design tips I can give you is to blend it in. Your outdoor kitchen should not stand out from the design of your home. The space should add to your home’s ambience and blend in with the inside of your house.

6) Ambiance lighting is needed

The last thing you’ll want in your outdoor kitchen is bright light when you’re trying to relax. While you’ll need decent light to cook, you’ll also wish to incorporate ambience lighting for the times when you want to relax.

7) A bar area is important

You should think about incorporating a bar area into your outdoor kitchen. One of the best aspects of cooking outside is the opportunity to interact with others. Building a bar area around your outdoor kitchen will give you time to catch up with family and friends as you do your cooking.

8) Water and beer tap need to be at the end

You won’t want people bumping into you while you’re cooking. Even if they’re just trying to grab a glass of water, beer from the fridge, or some brew from the tap – they’ll be in your way. Build the water tap, beer tap, and refrigerator into an easily accessible area of the kitchen.

9) Include entertainment

A bar area, a lounging area, music, television, and more can all be included in your outdoor kitchen. Make sure you include entertainment in your initial outdoor kitchen design plans. It can be a hassle to add entertainment options after the fact.

As always, we recommend you consult with Huston Contracting Inc. before you start any Outdoor Kitchen Design in the Olathe or Johnson Country area!

By ddmg Landscape • Tips and Tricks • • • 0 Comments

Where to Find the Best Olathe Landscapers

It’s a homeowner’s job to keep the home up-to-date, alluring, and bursting with curb appeal. Even if you’re not planning on selling your home soon, it’s important to feel a bit of pride swell up in your chest as you roll home from a long days work. That feeling of pride often comes with a price.

Stunning curb appeal takes time and effort to cultivate. Your landscaping isn’t going to take care of itself. Many individuals and families find themselves drenched in sweat with dirty hands and knees come Saturday afternoon. A day out in the sun, as you work on your landscaping, is hard work.

While landscaping can be tough work, there is some good news. You don’t have to handle your landscaping by yourself. Instead of spending all your free time working, you could just hire an Olathe landscaper to take care of enhancing your home appeal.

What Do You Want?

Before you hire an Olathe landscaper, you’ll want to do a little bit of research. You need to know what you want. You need to have an idea of how you’d like your landscaping to turn out. Do some research online and get a sense of the look or beautification project you’re interested in. Walk around the neighborhood and search for ideas.

Once you’ve got some ideas in mind, it’s time to find your landscaper. Here’s how to find the best Olathe landscapers:

Word of Mouth: If you hear any friends or family talking about a landscaping project or curbside addition – ask them about it. Find out if they like how the project turned out. See if they’d recommend the landscaper they used or if they were not that pleased with the work.

Take a Name: Olathe landscapers often leave little signs in yards after a project is complete. If you see a project you like completed and a sign in front – jot down the name of the company or take a photo with your phone. Then look the company up online when you get home.

Ask Around: If you see some amazing landscaping on a home, then don’t be afraid to ask the owners who did their project. If you’d like to emulate some design elements from a landscaping project you saw, but don’t know who completed it – just knock on the front door and ask nicely.

Google It: Lastly, you should Google “Olathe landscapers” if you’re in the market. Read reviews of different companies and look at portfolios. Get an idea about the landscaping companies in the area. And always remember – the best landscaper may not be found on the first page of Google. Do some digging and make an informed choice.

Once You Found an Olathe Landscaper

If you found an Olathe landscaper you like (or a few), then you’ll want to get in contact with the company. Ask some questions. See if your project will require a consultation or if you can get a bid over the phone, and always feel free to give Huston Contracting Inc. a call with all your landscaping questions!