A summer kitchen, be it a simple gazebo with a barbecue or a solid structure with a stove and communications, is an essential building on any site. After all country life unimaginable without barbecues, outdoor gatherings, and seasonal food preservation. In this material, we presented 11 tips, 70 photo ideas and several videos that will help you create your ideal summer kitchen.
They can be divided into three types:
Classic summer kitchen with barbecue and oven in the yard country house in the Moscow region
Now let's look at the characteristics of free-standing and attached kitchens:
No matter how thoughtful and beautiful your summer kitchen is, its poor location on the site can complicate both construction and further operation. Therefore, the location is the first thing you should think carefully about.
Summer kitchen at the dacha by the pond
Understand the features different types the street hearth will help you.
Stationary gas grill built into a brick structure
In this case, instead of monolithic or pile- strip foundation you can get by columnar foundation. The building itself will consist of 4 (or more) supports and a single/double slope roof with light roof, for example, from polycarbonate. This is very simple design, which you can actually build with your own hands in just a couple of days and with a minimal budget.
The following selection of photos presents design options for simple summer kitchens.
A simple summer kitchen at a dacha in the Moscow region
The easiest way to build a summer kitchen with your own hands is to use wood. True, larch or teak should be preferred over pine, as they are stronger and, moreover, age beautifully
Simple summer kitchen made of timber with a pitched roof
However, there is a way to make a summer kitchen with your own hands even faster and cheaper. Build a paver area, install one or two large garden umbrellas, arrange furniture, set up a sink and portable grill and start cooking!
On the one hand, a cellar in a summer kitchen is very useful, because it is as convenient to store food supplies in it as in a refrigerator. On the other hand, its creation significantly increases the cost and complexity of construction. Especially if we're talking about about an open building, because then the cellar will have to be insulated and protected from leaks. Even in the main house you can do without a cellar and basement, let alone a summer kitchen.
When choosing or developing a summer kitchen project, thinking through options for its finishing, keep in mind that it should be combined with the facade of the house and other buildings on the site. This way you will create a real dacha complex and achieve a feeling of orderliness. It doesn't have to be a 100% match color scheme, decoration, architecture and style, but objects must have something in common. The photo below shows an example of a modern summer kitchen on the terrace wooden house from timber.
In an open kitchen, the floor can be covered with:
Outdoor kitchen in the country with a floor made of larch deck boards coated with matte azure based on alkyd resins
In arranging kitchens, there is a so-called rule. “work triangle”, which means that three work areas (sink, stove and refrigerator) should be in reasonable proximity to each other, forming a triangle. Ideally it should be equilateral. Thanks to this layout of zones, the kitchen is as convenient as possible.
So, for example, if in your summer kitchen the source of fire is a barbecue and it is moved outside, then the sink and food preparation area should be installed as close to the exit as possible.
If only a single-row layout is possible in your summer kitchen, then a compact mobile island/peninsula will help make it more convenient.
Ideally the distance between dining table and the barbecue/stove/grill should be approximately 3 m. In this case, smoke, heat and odors will not disturb vacationers, and wood chips, ash and sparks will not spoil the appearance of the dining area.
The kitchen set and dining furniture in the summer kitchen must withstand high humidity and temperature changes, so luxurious wooden furniture, furniture made of laminated chipboard/MDF, as well as furniture upholstered in fabric or leather should be avoided.
But the following options are suitable for a summer kitchen:
The photo below shows an example of the design of a summer kitchen-terrace with an all-season stainless steel set.
In this selection of photos you can see ideas for furnishing a summer dining room.
Summer residents often forget to pay enough attention to the lighting of the summer kitchen. But it is with its help that you can create real coziness and comfort.
Various types of summer kitchens allow you to build this structure in almost any home on various sites. Kitchens can be closed or open. The simplest open-type summer kitchen is a terrace equipped with all the necessary kitchen equipment and kitchen furniture. Closed summer kitchens are a veranda, partially or entirely closed.
Closed summer kitchen in the country (photo)
Whatever the design of the open summer kitchen, it is traditionally divided into two main zones - a place for cooking and a living-dining room. The minimum set for the “culinary zone” includes a stove, oven or grill-fireplace, cabinets and shelves for kitchen utensils and dishes, a work surface or cutting table and a sink.
Summer kitchens, equipped in separate buildings from the house, constructive solution also available open or closed.
Summer kitchen in the form of a house in the photo
This could be an open summer kitchen in the country or a kitchen in the form of a light frame house (usually unheated), although it happens that such a house is built of brick and even equipped with a fireplace or stove.
An open kitchen is a structure without walls, which visually creates the effect of free space. Such a kitchen may have a canopy or a roof on pillars or no roof at all, being at best under the branches of a spreading tree.
In this case, there is a feeling of complete unity with nature.
An open kitchen can be built in the form of a veranda or gazebo. Its main elements are kitchen furniture(table, benches, chairs), sink and stove for cooking.
The main advantage of open kitchens, in addition to unity with nature, is that they do not need to be ventilated and are not hot in summer.
Typically, when building an open kitchen, the supports and roof are made of wood, and natural and artificial stone is used for the foundation.
If a stove is being built, it is usually also lined with stone. Low monetary costs make the arrangement of an open-type summer kitchen inexpensive.
In addition, construction does not involve complex work or the use of equipment, so building such a summer kitchen is also quite simple in technical terms. So we can safely say that this is a good option for novice builders.
All outdoor summer kitchens have the same advantages:
Open-type summer kitchens also have disadvantages, which include:
A summer kitchen with a closed veranda is very similar to a regular one small house with walls, roof, windows and door. This makes it possible to use them in any weather and, if heating is provided (although this is usually not done), even in winter.
Closed kitchen on the veranda (photo)
A closed kitchen on the veranda at the dacha, in addition to its main function, can be used as an overnight place for guests, a hunting lodge, and in winter time- like a pantry. Such a summer kitchen with an open terrace is usually built from plasterboard, lining or plywood, while more durable structures, designed to last for many years, are built from brick, foam blocks or stone.
Look at the kitchen veranda in the photo, which illustrates a successful layout:
The main advantages of a closed building are:
The main disadvantages of a closed summer kitchen with open veranda are the operating features:
Besides general information, it is worth considering in more detail the varieties of open and closed options summer kitchen.
For example, a summer kitchen-veranda is built as an extension to a country house. When constructing it, it should be taken into account that, like any extension, it should become a harmonious continuation of the house, fit into its design solution and at the same time retain its main function - to be a kitchen and dining-living room, and not become a hallway.
The construction of a summer kitchen in the form of a veranda should begin with laying the foundation. Its depth should be equal to the depth of the house’s foundation so that the extension does not tear off in winter. The frame for the walls is then installed, the exterior sheathing is done, and the pitched roof is covered.
Ideally country house and the veranda must have one roof covering, but if the veranda is added later, its roof or canopy must be combined with the main roof both from an aesthetic point of view and from a technical point of view (so that there is no leakage during rain, etc.).
To make the kitchen veranda lighter and more airy, you can install large casement windows or glaze the entire front or side parts.
An open-type kitchen extension is a structure in the form of a terrace due to a significant expansion of the porch. In this case, support beams are installed along the wall of the house, on which an inclined canopy is laid on top.
If the terrace is built on a well-leveled area and there are no problems with water accumulation, the floor can be laid directly on the ground - it can simply be a covering of paving slabs. The terrace can be protected from any bad weather (rain, wind, etc.) by side partitions (both permanent and decorative) or, for example, waterproof curtains. You can build pergolas and decorate them with climbing plants or plant hedge from shrub plants that will decorate the terrace and provide pleasant coolness on hot summer evenings.
During construction summer kitchen-gazebo you can’t do without a columnar or strip foundation. Frame racks made of brick, stone or timber are installed on it in the corners, and then the entire structure is fixed with a roof made of light roofing materials, such as ondulin, bitumen sheets, etc. Buildings of this type are more suitable than all other types of summer kitchens for installing a barbecue, barbecue or oven.
In such a kitchen it is also very convenient to process the harvested crops without fear of wind or rain and without worrying about the cleanliness and ventilation of the room from kitchen aromas.
The openings between the counters of such a summer kitchen can be left open or one of the walls can be sewn up to install kitchen cabinets and shelves. You can arrange pergolas with climbing plants, decorate the openings with textile curtains and lattice wood panels.
Sliding or removable partitions may be provided, as well as roller blinds to be opened in good weather.
Other options for a summer kitchen can be formed on the basis of existing ones, for example, if the gazebo is glazed or have hinged windows, it can serve during the cold period, especially if the kitchen is equipped with a fireplace or stove.
Such options for summer kitchens in the country as a house are practically a full-fledged dwelling, so its construction requires more effort in comparison with the same gazebo. This will require a reliable foundation (preferably monolithic), walls, a reliable roof, and installation of windows and doors. But such a house will be multifunctional.
In addition to the kitchen, you can equip a cellar in it, then construction will need to begin with digging a pit, and the walls of the cellar will become the foundation for the above-ground part of the structure. The house can be supplemented with a terrace or veranda, which in this case will serve as an outdoor living room with a dining area with a large table, chairs, benches, armchairs, and cooking will take place inside the house.
Summer kitchen with cooking equipment in the photo
A country summer kitchen must have cooking equipment. Typically, electric or gas stoves are used for everyday cooking, but some summer residents choose a more exotic option - a wood-burning stove, fireplace, barbecue or barbecue, which must be made of refractory bricks. And in this case, you should think in advance about the fire safety of the entire structure and high-quality ventilation system. These types of fireplaces not only make the summer kitchen cozy, but also contribute to significant savings - while the wood is burning in the stove, not only is the food being prepared, but the room is also warming up. Well, talking about how tasty and healthy food cooked over an open fire and fresh air is completely unnecessary.
When planning to equip the kitchen with a fireplace, barbecue or barbecue, you must take into account that in this case the room should be as ventilated as possible. You can make such a focus temporary or permanent. For example, there are collapsible models of grills and barbecues, which with the onset of cold weather can be safely stored until the next summer season.
If you plan to build a summer kitchen in the form of a house, you can put a large stove made of refractory bricks in it - with various compartments and additional accessories.
Kitchen with bath in the photo
IN Lately Complex structures have become very popular, including, in addition to a summer kitchen, other country buildings, such as a bathhouse, a terrace, hunting lodge etc. Depending on the wishes of the owners, the combination of such structural elements can be anything, and they are all built on one common foundation. At the same time, the amount of materials required for the construction of structures is reduced, which allows significant savings during construction. For example, a common roof costs much less than the roofing of several separate buildings. There is also no need to lay many paths connecting various buildings on the site, since in this case all objects will be located in one place.
As a result, building an integral structure in many respects will be more profitable than constructing separate premises. In addition, aged in uniform style and a complex built from compatible materials will look much more attractive externally than several separate buildings built in different time and from a variety of materials.
In this case, energy resources for heating are saved, and in general the organization of electrification, water supply and sewerage is simplified. Finally, construction will require less land than several buildings, and in general it will be much more convenient to move from one room to another if they are all under one roof.
There are several options for complex buildings. For example, one of them is a summer kitchen in the form of a house with a barbecue and a veranda, in which the owners can not only spend time pleasantly themselves, but also welcome guests. The house can be made into either one or two rooms, in which case the second room can be used as a guest room. On the veranda you can place a light comfortable furniture to have breakfast, lunch and even dinner in the summer, and during rain or cool weather the dining room can be moved inside the house. Naturally, the roof for the entire structure must be uniform.
Another option is a summer kitchen with barbecue and gazebo. In this case, you can also do everything under one roof. The gazebo can be open or glazed, and the summer kitchen can also be closed or open. The choice of the optimal option depends only on the owner’s imagination and his budget.
Another popular option is a summer kitchen with a stove and a sauna, which can be used not only in the summer, because both the kitchen and the sauna can be heated with a stove all year round. Often, all the charm of using a bathhouse can be felt in winter, when the temperature contrast in the bathhouse and outside is greatest, which causes an indescribable feeling.
Steaming indoors in the summer when you can spend time outdoors? Not the best good idea. And cooking or making twists is even worse. It is much more pleasant and useful to spend time under a canopy or in a light, ventilated building, which many call a “summer kitchen.” It’s easy to build a summer kitchen with your own hands, especially the open options.
Open is more like an open gazebo or veranda. A very good option for the warm season. Not in all regions, even in summer, you can stay outside for a long time. Then they make closed summer kitchens - this is already small house, which can be built using any technology that seems most attractive to you.
Let's start with open areas. If you plan to move the main activity to fresh air for the summer, it will be more convenient to attach a summer kitchen to existing house. In this case they do. Most often, they first make it open. Easiest to do wooden extension. Very open version these could simply be pillars supporting the roof.
The simplest option is a few pillars supporting a light roof - the summer kitchen is ready with your own hands
This option is very good for the southern regions, where for most of the year you can stay outside for as long as you like. For more northern regions or if this is a home permanent residence, usually they decide to make the extension more closed. First they make the railings, and then they often think about covering the spans with something else: they want to extend the “period of use.” As a result, the open summer kitchen becomes closed.
The most common material for this type of extension is wood. It is flexible, forgives many mistakes, which can be corrected later without disassembling the structure, so it is easy to work even without skills. It is also lightweight, so the foundation for a summer kitchen made of wood can be made lightweight - columnar or
The second most popular material is brick or decorative rock. If you have direct hands and follow the technology, amateur developers can work with this material. You shouldn’t take on building a house without experience, but you can try putting together pillars and partitions for a summer kitchen.
But since even a pillar made of brick or stone no longer weighs a hundred kilograms or more, a more solid foundation is required for it. If we take into account that it will also take the load from the roof, then we will have to make pillars or piles with good load-bearing capacity.
Removal from the side of the house - open terrace with stove and barbecue
If you are thinking about putting brick walls, it is better to immediately pour the pile-strip foundation, and bury the tape below the freezing depth. If this option is not suitable - the freezing depth is large or the soil does not allow it, you will have to either make a monolithic slab, or abandon the brick partitions, making them using a different technology, even from the same wood or from the same wood. The good thing about a self-built summer kitchen is that you know all the design features down to the smallest detail, you can subsequently modernize the building.
Some people don’t really like kitchen odors that can enter the house from the extension. Then they build small building at some distance from home. The presence of summer kitchens is almost a mandatory attribute of private houses in the southern regions. Before the era of air conditioning, cooking in the heat indoors was a real torture: high temperature “outside”, heated walls, and even heat from the stove - the conditions were hellish, while the rest of the rooms were also heated. That’s why they made at least small separate gazebo houses, in which they placed gas stove and a cylinder with liquefied gas; in the villages they built a small stove. Some even cooked on a “kirogaz” or primus stove.
Modern air conditioning equipment makes it possible to eliminate all these inconveniences, but free-standing summer kitchens still continue to be built. They are often also used as a guest house - having made them.
Most cheap option- pillars supporting the roof. They can be wooden, brick or combined - consisting of a stone base and a timber top. This is the best option from the point of view of operation: the wood is protected from the effects of most precipitation, and at the same time the weight is not very large.
One of the easy options
The floor in such a kitchen can be made of planks. It’s easier to do, but many are confused by the fact that the wood will be left with virtually no protection. There are two ways to solve the problem. The first is to use effective protective impregnations - such as wood oils or waxes intended for outdoor use. They do not create a shiny surface, but protect well from moisture and dirt. Using varnishes for summer kitchens is not the best idea. They begin to burst and crack; to renew the coating, the old one must be completely removed, while oils and wax require only thorough preliminary cleaning; after drying, a fresh layer can be applied.
This terrace has been treated with Pinotex Terrace Oil
The second way is to use not wood, but wood-polymer composite(DPK). These are boards that consist of a mixture of wood fibers and polymers. They look and feel very much like wood. The only difference is that they almost do not change size depending on humidity, although thermal expansion is present. Such boards are called “decking” or “planken” depending on the profile of the board. There is also “garden parquet”. This is a covering made from the same material, only assembled into panels, like parquet. They can simply be laid on the ground, without any preparation.
The terrace and floor in the summer kitchen are made of WPC - wood-polymer composite
The advantages of WPC include a long period of operation without changing the original properties. It dates back decades, but varies greatly depending on the manufacturer. The downside is that the price is not the most affordable. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the technology is relatively new, not yet particularly mastered, although there are Russian manufacturers similar products.
Stone or specialized tiles withstand weather conditions better, but installing such a floor is not an easy task. If you simply lay it on a gravel-sand backfill and let it soak in the fall, in frosty weather the tiles may crack or bounce off. We have to make an insulated one monolithic slab, following all the technology: with a sand and gravel layer, insulation, reinforcement, pouring concrete. The dimensions of this slab are 50-60 cm larger around the perimeter than the planned building. In general, the costs and work are serious, although it is convenient to use.
One of the floor options is large concrete plates made of high grade concrete
After the time when the concrete gains strength (at least 2 weeks must pass, and this is with average temperature+20°C), the covering can be laid. You can use flagstone - stone sawn into layers, you can use porcelain stoneware, or frost-resistant tiles.
A simpler option is to lay out a site paving slabs. But this is an exclusively summer option. But - without fussing with the foundation.
If you build a summer kitchen with your own hands at the dacha, this is perhaps the best option. It turns out inexpensive and practical.
Those who want to have an all-season summer area for gatherings or cooking, install more permanent buildings. Most often these are buildings frame technology- quickly and relatively inexpensively, more expensive, but more capital - from logs or timber.
“Framework” option - racks made of timber covered with clapboard
In the case of a frame building, everything is very simple: racks made of timber are placed in small increments (you can even join boards together), then they are sheathed on both sides with some kind of finishing material. What kind is your choice, be it clapboard - wooden or plastic, blockhouse, or any other material. To save money, the inside is often sheathed with plywood, fiberboard, gypsum fiber board, OSB or something similar. If desired, it can be insulated. The frame is sheathed on one side, insulation is laid (usually mineral wool), and sheathing is installed on the other side. You can insulate not only immediately, but after some time, you just have to remove the sheathing on one side.
What does the “skeleton” of a summer kitchen look like using frame technology?
Another advantage of frame construction is that it can be given any shape, and the foundation can be relatively light - depending on the soil - pile or strip. Such foundations are also needed for wooden buildings - made of logs or timber. All the rules are the same here. It is important to find or order a project, but assembly is a matter of technique.
Naturally, you can build from any other materials - from foam blocks to brick or even rubble. It's all about the amount you plan or can spend on this building. Construction from foam concrete, aerated concrete, some building blocks, and adobe will also be inexpensive. Cinder block, like adobe, can be made independently, so the choice of material is up to you, and then everything is built according to all the rules. There is only one deviation: insulation for the summer kitchen is either not done at all, or it is done minimally. Another point - heating, as a rule, is absent, and this also must be taken into account when choosing materials for construction and finishing.
A summer kitchen with the opportunity to “sit outside” was being built. Therefore, the option with an open veranda was chosen. The base of the house is assembled from 200*200 mm timber, the internal walls are made from 150*100 mm. I like the look of the carriage, but it is ungodly expensive, so the timber was trimmed to create a similar relief.
The foundation is made of columnar. Because easy construction, the soils are normal, the posts were buried only 60 cm.
The harness was assembled from 200*200 mm timber. It was pre-impregnated with an antiseptic. The corners were connected as usual - cuts were made. The cross members were mounted on metal U-shaped plates. The beam was not rigidly fastened, since heaving would still occur, so that the building could “walk.”
The racks were made of 200*200 mm timber, the internal filling was made of 150*100 mm.
The walls were assembled quite quickly and without problems: there were no cuts, just pieces of timber of the required length were nailed to the posts. The roof is gabled, with a slight slope angle. On one side there is a take-out rafter legs more - to make a canopy on the side of the veranda, which will also cover from slanting rain.
The ceiling lining is made from unedged boards, which were then finished off on our own machine.
Ceiling lining - board
After building a summer kitchen, another problem arises: it is necessary to decorate it. The arrangement includes not only the choice of a table and chairs, it is also necessary to somehow organize the work area, somewhere to store food for the stove, which is often placed here. 
A beautiful, practical and cozy summer kitchen is needed in every dacha. We will show you step by step and in detail the construction of a summer kitchen with your own hands.
If you want to place a summer kitchen on a veranda or on a terrace that has already been built, then preparatory work will be kept to a minimum.
But if you are going to place the kitchen separately, then you need to make a foundation for it.
A drain for waste water should also be provided. If you have sandy or sandy loam soil, then a simple filtration well will be enough to drain the sink. And since this will not be the main sink, and the volume of wastewater will be small, it is quite suitable for constructing such a well old barrel or other container.
Holes are drilled in the bottom and walls of the barrel to form a sieve, and crushed stone is poured under and around it.
The formwork is being built again at the top. We will pour concrete into it, and thus obtain the basis for the future working surface.
But first you need to establish communications.
Pour the concrete and wait for it to harden.
You can begin installing equipment and finishing.
We chose tiles for surface finishing - they are practical and durable. And we plastered and painted the block walls.
In our project, we decided to install a small canopy over the work area.
The canopy will protect us from the sun, in addition, lighting is mounted on it.
If you prefer to shelter from bad weather, then you can modify this version of the summer kitchen by installing a more permanent canopy.
A modern summer kitchen made by yourself will become a favorite place for the whole family at your dacha.
If the prospect of such capital construction frightens you, then you can build a summer kitchen on a frame made of wood or metal profile, which is used for installing drywall.
This method is much faster and easier, but it is advisable to place such kitchens under a canopy and on a prepared surface (on a terrace, on a tiled yard, etc.)
A wide range of built-in appliances allows you to equip such a kitchen with any devices you need.
The profile can be covered with plasterboard for further tiling.
