Outdoor kitchens have seen a huge rise in popularity in recent years. Adding an outdoor kitchen to your home adds a whole new entertaining area and gathering place for your family and guests, and it also separates your home from others in the neighborhood when it comes time to sell. A properly built, well thought out outdoor kitchen adds real value to your home that you can recoup if you ever sell the house.
Like most other things in your home, this project is something that will take shape based on your tastes, budget, and available space. Outdoor kitchen designs vary from very simple cabinets with nothing but a grill or even just a sink, all the way up to very large designs that include even more features than the kitchen inside your home. But most designs fall somewhere in between those two extremes.
The first thing you have to do is decide on a budget. but how do you do that if you have never had an outdoor kitchen built before? Well, this will require some research. the good news is you don’t have to go anywhere to do this research because all the information you need is available right here online. Think about how large a grill you need, as well as what features you need in the grill. Do you need lights inside the grill? A rotisserie, 
smoker, searing burner, etc? All these things impact the price of a grill. I strongly recommend going with a quality grill when building an outdoor kitchen. It makes no sense to build an outdoor kitchen and include a grill that will not last more than a couple of years. A quality grill made from 304 stainless steel will never rust and will last many years. There is a wide price range when it comes to these grills. Figure a low end of around $1000 and a high end of $5000. Yes, that is a large range. The truth is your food will not taste any different from one grill to the next, but there are real differences in options and quality between those two extremes of grills so spend some time researching grills.
The next thing to think about is whether or not you need a vent hood over your grill. This will depend almost entirely on the location of the grill. If you are out from under the roof line, there is no need for a vent hood. Even if you are under the roof line you might not need a hood. Think about the overall layout. If there is going to be a bar nearby, you don’t want smoke blowing into your guest’s faces so if you are on the fence you might need to get the hood. Outdoor vent hoods are not cheap, but a good idea may be to wait until the rest of the project is finished and see if you need a hood. It will not cost any more to add the hood after the fact than it would to include it with the rest of the project so if you are running up against your budget limits it is perfectly alright to take a wait and see attitude on the hood.
Beyond the grill there are many other things you can add to the payout. Things like an outdoor refrigerator, ice maker, kegerator, wine cooler, a lot of other outdoor kitchen appliances. Again, it comes down to space and budget. Keep all these things in mind as you make your outdoor kitchen plans, do the research on each item and make your decision. In this way your plan will come together over time and you will be in control of the budget.
When you think you have your outdoor kitchen planned, bring in a couple of different contractors. Let them see your plan and have them draw up a proposal for you. Do not tell them your budget! Wait for their proposal and see how it compares to your research and the resulting budget. You may find one is a lot higher than the other, and it may mean you need to bring in a third contractor to see where their price falls. Keep an open mind and consider that it might save you a bit of money if you order some equipment yourself. Also keep in mind that if you do that you should expect to still have to pay an installation fee. After all the contractor still has to unpack and install the unit and get rid of the garbage. Treat your contractor fairly and the entire project is more likely to go smoothly.