Skip to content
Before and Afters
Our Built-To-Last Outdoor Kitchen Reveal (My Favorite “Room” To Hang Out In All Summer)
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
Salt and Pepper Grinders (similar) | Olive Oil (similar) | Cutting Board | Ceramic Fruit Holder | Striped Napkins (similar)
The process is fantastic – you work with a kitchen designer to build out what you want within your particular footprint. They plan it all out, making sure it makes sense for flow, ease, and thinking about what mechanics you want near each other (i.e., gas near gas). You approve the plans, select the finishes (i.e., stone and cabinet panel finish), and they manufacture it. It’s modular in the sense that each cabinet is its own “box,” thus making it semi-custom (which is much cheaper than fully custom). It arrives separated in crates by each cabinet “box,” which makes it easy to figure out what goes where. Then you use a drill and their brackets to secure them all together (far easier than any cabinets ever – it’s just matching up the corners and drilling into the brackets to secure). If you want to see how the whole kitchen came together, go check out our YouTube video on the process or just watch the embedded video below (just wait for a few short ads to play).
The Assembly Took Us ONE DAY
That’s right, one day. We had 4 dudes, my brother and his business partner, an RTA rep, Pete (upon my request, just in case), and another assistant. We started at 8 am and wrapped by 6 pm. Now we had a lot of help, but our kitchen is on the much bigger side, so if you had a normal-sized grill/counter situation, it could definitely be done in a day. It’s just a simple assembly that is really intuitive once you see how it works (not IKEA, folks).
Our outdoor kitchen is not super far away from our kitchen, but definitely farther than you want it to be every time you need napkins or ketchup. This wasn’t Brian’s concern, but that’s because he’s the griller and I’m on everything else. So when we had the option of adding a fridge, dry pantry, and enough storage for outdoor plates, flatware, platters, and a sink (!!!) to do ALL the dishes (that live out here permanently), I leaned all in. And it has worked – we’ve already had many BBQs where nothing from inside comes out or vice versa (meaning we are only cleaning one kitchen and not even prepping inside).
I love how the finishes are so simple and work with the style of our property – the white “plank” panels are actually cast cement and extremely solid (they come in “brick” as well). RTA constructs everything to not rot or rust or deteriorate in any way. OF course, we’ll cover it in winter, but with the rain up here, I don’t need to worry about it – they’ve tested it all in hurricane weather. I LOVE that I don’t need to worry about replacing anything for at least 10 to 15 years (we all know that’s not typical for anything that sits outside for years). But RTA’s product is truly built to last a lifetime, so I actually feel so good that I don’t really have to worry at all.
Apron | Blouse | Pants | Slides
I’m pretty sure that’s me up there saying “I told you so” about how pleased I was with having burners to make the corn on the cob and the baked beans (two essential BBQ foods for me). It was so fun to cook out here with him, kids running around, and my brother’s fam hanging with us. I wasn’t relegated to prepping in the kitchen while everyone else got to hang out here.
Foldable Handle Pots | Round Wood Board (vintage) | White Colander | Salad Servers (similar) | Knife
I’m going to do a full post about all the appliances, but I’m just giddy about the fact that I can go to the store, immediately drop everything in the fridge out here, and later prep, cook, and clean the entire meal without going inside. Brian is psyched about the smash burgers, and I’m just so excited that no one will be tracking dirt into our house during our family frat parties.
Counter Stools | Large Cutting Board
As you can see, the counter stools from Polywood look pretty darn great here (and they’ll last for 20 years at least, which makes me thrilled). We can sit five on each side, and of course, have like 5 people gather in the middle leaning on all the counters. Such a dream – a rowdy, rowdy dream :)
The location of the kitchen was something we thought about for years, but after hanging out here for a couple of summers, we were clear and firm, and thank goodness we were right. It’s so central to the whole yard that you really feel part of all the interaction. The lovely folks at Dennis’ 7 Dees added those evergreen magnolia trees, flagstone, and all the plantings (shout out to Monrovia for the mature plants) to soften that awkward sports court location (in the middle of the gazebo). It doesn’t really bother me, but that’s probably because it was my idea, and I love the kitchen so much that I don’t even let a negative thought in.
I truly feel like the luckiest mom on the planet right now, and the only thing that makes me happier is having people over and sharing it all, forcing my soups and salads on my friends while listening to music and drinking rosé with a billion kids running around laughing. No life is perfect, and certainly mine isn’t either, despite sharing mostly the good stuff here. But I feel really grateful for this yard, and now this kitchen to share with my friends and family for decades to come.
Look at that brother and sister team :) Ken practically lives at my house while I’m over shooting at his house – it’s pretty special.
My Quick Advice If You Are Thinking About An Outdoor Kitchen:
A kitchen of this size and caliber is an investment – we hired many subs for the structure, deck, electrical, gas, plumbing, painting, and landscaping. While RTA was crazy easy and fast, it’s still a thing and will cost tens of thousands of dollars, which is why my advice would be to think about your climate and make sure that you are investing in a kitchen that will last a really long time (like RTA). Read the reviews to make sure that you won’t be dealing with a landfill in 7 years. We knew we wanted to cover it for rain (and so we could grill in spring), and we chose hardwood to ensure that the deck didn’t rot in 10 years. While you don’t need to hire a GC and you could manage all the subs yourself, a contractor will help it go more smoothly and guarantee the work will be correct. I know that I’m extremely lucky to have this partner who traded out the kitchen for all my PR and social production from my team. I can promise you that we are extremely happy with the quality and durability of this product and stand firmly behind this RTA kitchen.
Make sure you’ll really use what you are investing in. After a summer with probably 20 parties, we knew that this would be a long-term family investment that would pay off for work and in memories, but you might not need more than a grill and a prep counter – especially if your kitchen is nearby for storage and food. Sometimes we influencers make you think you need all these incredibly luxurious things, but your house, your weather, your level of hosting, and your budget might warrant something simpler (or get that pizza oven if you like wood-fired pizza!). I hope this inspired you for what the options are – we’ve really really loved it.
If you are into this and ready to invest, I LOVE RTA SO MUCH. Plus, they’re offering 10% off of your outdoor kitchen!
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
*Photos by Kaitlin Green
so so beautiful! You put so much thought to avoid running back into the main house. But which bathroom are your 100+ guests using?
We need to know this! lol
I asked Em and she said everyone just uses the powder bath and it’s totally fine!
It’s so good. But I really love the tree growing through the deck!
It’s incredible – and I love that you are out there the whole time enjoying. I do think that is worth a bigger kitchen to have it all work. Certainly fits your lifestyle and needs so well. Also really grateful that you are thinking long term and environmentally. Can we see someone sitting in a bar stool? Are they comfortable?
Your back yard is a dream oasis! I would love to see an overhead view as well as a “walk around” to look at all the landscaping and flow. I could see you adding a little glam outhouse bathroom. Just so beautiful!
Tell us more about lighting. Those cafe lights look cute but are nowhere near what great indoor kitchen lighting is like. With a roof and potential cloudy days, can you see enough to work in the kitchen? Is there overhead lighting we can’t see? It is making me squint just thinking about chopping in low lighting.
She mentioned the pendants she ordered hadn’t arrived yet. Hopefully, we will see them when installed.
I would love some tips on how to keep such large outdoor kitchen space clean and tidy.
I’m curious what the plan is for the tree as it continues to grow.
This is really beautiful and different than what you can find on the internet right now. Love the green stools, too. Hope to see more pics of it in use.
It’s so beautiful! What a dream space to cook in. I am curious about the decking – it looks like cedar, is that correct? How will you handle the maintenance that kind of decking requires? Was there a reason you didn’t go with a composite decking here? Or is it a very realistic composite you used?
This says they chose a hardwood for the decking. Cedar is a softwood. I wonder if they used the same hardwood they used for the farmhouse front and back porch decking? Believe it was Sasaffras from Robi Decking. Search for the post “The Farmhouse Front Porch Reno Process (Reveal Coming Tomorrow!)”
Very Nice! I appreciate your advice about “maybe you don’t need all this”. I recently redid my yard and opted out of doing an outdoor kitchen. Our indoor kitchen is steps away from the grill and eating area at the back door. We can always add outdoor kitchen features later if we change our minds. For now, our grill has a burner and we also have a portable induction burner ($100ish) so we can easily do our cooking outside and prep inside. Our deck is at finished floor grade so we can easily wheel carts of food and dishes back and forth.
Note on Polywood furniture: one of our four ten-year-old Polywood Adirondacks got flattened by a huge falling tree. We replaced it with a new one –and you cannot pick out the new one from the group of four chairs. (And I’m in the Northeast and routinely left them out year-round.)
I agree – I like the caution of going for what you need too. Living in Australia, outdoor spaces are like another living room year round. The thought of hosting neighbourhood events and entertaining hordes makes me feel faint but I do have a very big family who drop by constantly and drift in and out of each others’ homes, and I’m more likely to have small groups of friends around.
I’m looking at this option to put on my deck – not cheap but small and compact, made to stand up to a searing Australian sun and easy to make unobtrusive on the days when I’m swinging on the day bed and just chilling. Worth really thinking about how you actually live.
To me, the placement half on / half off the sports court looks totally intentional! Maybe it’s partly the landscaping, but placing the gazebo so you can easily step to the sports court without walking on the ground makes perfect sense, especially in your mud-prone climate.
How are you controlling wind and rain?
by going inside!!
Yes, Emily is great at a lot of things, but I don’t think she can control the weather! LOL
Do not show this to my husband! It’s just beautiful, right down to the corbels. Question: are you using the counters for buffet style serving? If not, where do you set out food?
The way you designed the tree growing out of the deck is the chef’s kiss. Pun intended! Love it!!
It’s gorgeous!!! So happy for you =-)
Looks lovely! What countertop material did you select?
The process post has the schematic. Looks like Thunder White Granite, 3cm, sealed/leathered.
Tree looks lovely , but two points to consider. First, as it is an oak it ill get MUCH larger in circumference over the years, presumably you cn widen the opening in the deck. Second, and more important, to see it looks like people could accidentally “fall ” into that hole so I would consider putting some kind or waist high railing around it. This feel likely because you keep mentioning how many people will be using this space. Perhaps make the top of the railing wide enough to hold a drink.
That’s really smart. Love any idea that serves two purposes: keeps people safe and adds another hang-out area. Maybe something narrower than this?
Just beautiful!!! Dying to know where all the gorgeous (aged? Weathered? Vintage?) planters are from!
So I might have missed a post on this, but I see so many lovely plants in pots around the outdoor kitchen that are obviously perennials that are going to outgrow their posts pretty quickly. So is there a phase (whatever # haha) for them? You could insert large above ground planters all along the outside edge in certain areas where there’ll be room for their roots to get bigger. Or skip this middle step & just plant them in the ground in designated areas where they’ll have all the room they need for their roots to get bigger & the plants to grow exponentially (& be maintained by your landscaper at the height/width you want to keep them at. Just curious!