Living Large ... in a Small Space

By Chris Mordi, vice president of communications for Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet

Above: The elements can be hard on outdoor kitchens. Choosing materials that stand up to wind, rain, sun and snow is critical. This kitchen includes equipment made of 304-grade stainless steel. The counters and backsplash feature green granite; the floor is sandblasted concrete. All wood features are built with Ipe or cedar.
Photography by Joshua J Phoenix/ Owner HD Estates

Set near the Pontiac Bay of Lake Washington, just northeast of Seattle, Wash., a lovely bungalow is tucked tightly among a stand of western red cedar trees. It is where Daniel Lowery, APLD, landscape designer and founder of Queen Anne Gardens, created what he considers one of his finest works: a mixture of modern steel design and ancient basalt columns wrapped by a lush garden enclave. It also includes an outdoor kitchen that seamlessly ties together the homeowner’s indoor and outdoor lifestyles.

Basalt columns, ipe wood and steel, seen here at the front of the house, are elements of the garden that surrounds the home. The outdoor kitchen incorporates the garden’s design strengths and repeats the materials.
Tristan Brown, Queen Anne Gardens, LLC

The home “is down a lane, in a totally rural area,” says Lowery. “There are lots of western red cedars that are three to four feet in diameter.” With a house that was large for its lot size as well as predetermined setbacks from the neighboring cedars, the footprint in which Lowery had to work was quite small. All of which drove the design of the property and the placement of the outdoor kitchen.

Lowery’s original direction from the homeowner was only to build a 360-degree garden that would beautify the house and its grounds. The decision to include the outdoor kitchen came after several garden drawings and budgets had already been submitted. And from an indoor need – the homeowners had a tendency to smoke-up the house when they cooked in the kitchen.

His solution was to create a space that tied his client’s indoor and outdoor kitchen needs together and incorporate it into the new gardens. To make it happen, Lowery had to create a space that was located outside and below the indoor kitchen, tight to the house so that he wouldn’t disturb the cedars.

He says he uses a process that has served him well with all of his clients: make the suggestion about how the layout will serve the client best, present the budget up front and let them decide what fits. Initially, he wasn’t sure the kitchen would make the budget. In the end, he showed how it could be integrated into their entire outdoor lifestyle and solves the indoor cooking issue.

The deck, constructed of ipe wood and enclosed with textured glass, serves as a gathering area just outside the indoor kitchen. It also links the indoors to the outdoor kitchen and the backyard gardens with a stairway running down its right side.
Tristan Brown, Queen Anne Gardens, LLC

From the very beginning, he knew this was an opportunity to build a garden and outdoor living space that would be one of the finest of his career. Everything had to be perfect. Lowery says this was a fast-tracked project that took 14 months from initial design consultation to the finished project.

Since the space dedicated to the outdoor kitchen was so restricted, Lowery says he needed to use every single inch of it. “There was no space to spare. We needed to be inventive,” says Lowery. “It could have looked like just putting appliances in a garden. It’s not easy to make appliances look beautiful.”

This is a very inventive use of space,” said Russ Faulk, vice president of product development for Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet. “It’s remarkable because Dan was able to tuck a full outdoor kitchen into a small area and give it the proper amount of room for all of the kitchen’s functional zones.”

The outdoor kitchen is tucked cozily and ingeniously alongside the stairs. Swaddled in the rich brown of ipe wood, and complemented by steel, sand-blasted concrete and green granite, it features a soaring wood and iron arbor with a glass ceiling that lets the rare ray of sunlight shine through while protecting the cook from the ubiquitous Pacific Northwest rain. A wall created by the rise of the steps serves as one of the kitchen’s boundaries. And “the back of kitchen is boundary wall and perimeter security,” says Lowery. “This was custom designed, hand measured and cut and constructed,” Lowery says. “Every piece was hand-fitted to make it work.”

One of the clever design features of the kitchen was its use of textured glass, appropriately called rain. Designed to be used in a vertical space, Lowery turned it horizontally and placed it and as an enclosure for the stairs. “It captures the colors of the surroundings,” Lowery said.

Because of Seattle’s penchant for rainy, unpredictable weather, the homeowners chose materials that would stand up to the weather, blend in with the surrounding cedar forest while allowing in the stray and elusive ray of Seattle sunlight. Ipe was used in the decking, railings, staircase, skirting under the deck and in custom-cut toe kicks under the grill and cabinetry. Lowery projects its lifespan in the outdoor area to be about 50 years. He also used it because ipe has a warmer feel, unlike the artificial, but equally durable, synthetic wood.

Lowery says he chose Kalamazoo products because of its reputation to withstand the elements and its weather tight cabinetry. “Everyone else’s grills just rust like mad,” he says. He also points to the fact that the company’s cabinetry solved the problem of storing things outside because of their weather-tightness.

“We’ve taken the extra step to put rain gutters around each cabinet door and drawer opening,” says Faulk. “These features channel water away from the interior of the cabinet, letting homeowners store their linens, dishes, spices outdoors because they just won’t get wet.”

“Lowery did a fantastic job where most people make one of the biggest design mistakes: lighting,” Faulk said. “The kitchen has plenty of ambient lighting that illuminates the entire kitchen area.”

Faulk noted that ambient lighting is important for the obvious reason that it makes it easy for people to walk around and find items in the kitchen, but also for the not so obvious, but equally important reason of safety.

The ambient lighting was placed in such a way that it also serves as task lighting. “Since the homeowners rely so heavily on their grill for meal preparation, having the actual cooking space lit so they can see what is being made becomes vitally important for ensuring properly prepared dishes,” says Faulk. He says this lighting layout is different from others he has seen because it features lighting on either side of the grill, eliminated shadows that can be cast on the grilling surface by the cook.

In one last fit of space maximization, Lowery made use of the area underneath the newly created landing and stairwell. Instead of creating a solid ipe wall, which he did on the side of the stairs facing the outdoor kitchen, he placed sliding glass doors into it. This gave the homeowners easy access to much-needed storage.

In the end, Lowery said this became a big time and material job for him. He said there were more design meeting consultations than he’s ever had on past projects, saying he “really had to massage the space.”

Lowery says his process served his client well. “You have to make a mess first, then it gets beautiful,” he says.