6 Ways to Bring the Outdoors Into Your Kitchen Design

Do you want to create a kitchen that reflects your love of nature and the outdoors? While the kitchen may not seem like the most obvious room for a nature-based design, anyone can incorporate a number of elements that will bring the outdoors into their cooking zone. Here are six things you might try.

1. Natural Lighting

What could be more natural than sunlight? Open up your kitchen through the use of large windows, sliding glass doors, skylights, and an open floor plan layout. Not only will the sun shine in and light up the space with healthy, radiant light, but you’ll also add views of all the surrounding nature.

2. An Outdoor Kitchen

Does your kitchen have access to the backyard? Then you have the opportunity to truly bring the outdoors to the kitchen by including the actual outdoors. Create a wide and inviting transition through a window wall, sliding doors, or French doors and open it up to a protected outdoor entertainment zone.

An outdoor kitchen attached to the main kitchen can serve as a dining area, barbecue spot, pizza-making station, bar, or breakfast nook. Or you can simply use it to expand the capability of your main kitchen by placing overflow tasks outside.

3. Woods and Stone

Fortunately for nature lovers, the kitchen does offer a good canvas on which to use natural materials. Opt for natural materials like stone and wood for your flooring, cabinetry, countertops, and islands.

Stone surfaces provide a unique natural appearance and come with kitchen-friendly traits like heat resistance, nonporous surfaces, and durability. Wood floors come in many shades and textures for any kitchen.

4. Live Greenery

Have you considered how you might include live plants and flowers in your kitchen design? For many homeowners, adding indoor greenery is more of an afterthought — just a matter of placing pots around the room. But if you want to have thriving plants in the kitchen, plan for their presence during the design phase.

Add places in your design to hang indoor pots or install shelves on which to keep plants. Make sure windows provide light to the right areas. Plan how you can bring in enough direct and indirect sun to help plants thrive. Or add a greenhouse window or even a bay or bow window to keep even more live plants in the kitchen.

5. Colors from Nature

Look to the natural world to provide color inspiration for the kitchen. Look around at the common colors of nature in your area. Do you enjoy the lush greens of the woody forest? Chilly whites of an Illinois winter? Soft blue shades of water? The colors of a beautiful sunset? Colorful florals? No matter what facets of nature inspire you, let these inspire your kitchen palette.

6. Hidden Technology

The kitchen is often a showcase for modern machinery and appliances, including stainless steel refrigerators and countless countertop gadgets. But if you want a more organic feeling, put away the high-tech equipment.

Simple additions like appliance garages hide your modern food processors, blenders, and coffee grinders. Include a built-in cabinet to make the microwave more discreet. Consider a cabinetry façade for the refrigerator or dishwasher. Use appliance lifts to hide away small appliances like mixers. By putting these items away, you can then emphasize natural materials instead.

Which of these natural inclusions could make your new kitchen look and feel more organic? No matter what appeals to you and what fits your budget and space, start by consulting with the team at DesignFirst Builders. We’ll put our 15 years of experience to work creating the kitchen that works for you. Call today to make an appointment.