Desert Crest Press

Backyard living in any location just isn’t complete with great patio designs. Here in Arizona, the perfect feature to round out the usefulness of your outdoor living space is definitely built in gas grills. Portable grills are fine, but generally lack the long lasting material quality you find in models designed to be built into BBQ islands. At some point many homeowners get weary of replacing the grill every few years. Since outdoor cooking is something we can enjoy most of the year, having a more permanent setup is highly desirable in the Phoenix area.

While we have graduated from the basic grill fare of burgers, hot dogs and steaks to more gourmet dishes and meals, adding things like cook tops and even smokers to Phoenix BBQ islands has become not just popular, but important. Not only is it convenient to be able to prepare and cook an entire meal on the patio, designs homeowners seek today blend entertaining, cooking and dining into one outdoor space. So more often than not, requests for designing Phoenix BBQ grills means adding bar space to the unit along with food preparation counter space.

Stainless steel grills and cook tops come in a variety of sizes, but most people tend to lean toward a mid-sized grill and a four burner stove inset. If you’re going to go all out in whipping up a feast, its best to have enough cooking space to pull it off. Adding refrigerators and storage space is also popular, but not necessary for enjoying the permanent grilling space.

Patio designs made with Phoenix pavers are probably the most popular style in the area. Long lasting, great looking and less expensive than natural stone paving, pavers are the most commonly requested material for new patio installation today. Since they are always a blend of earth tones we find in natural stone, this paving material makes a great companion to stone and stucco BBQ islands.

While the shape of a BBQ island isn’t anything set in stone, many homeowners request a design something like the one pictured above with a round bar on one end that will accommodate four comfortably. This particular built in gas grill’s design uses a curved island with prep or serving space both sides of the grill. The bar can double and added room or keep the party where the action is. Having the bar so close to the grill is great for keeping a close eye on your meat while having easy access to a chair and your dinner partners.

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There’s nothing quite like fully functional outdoor living spaces in this part of Arizona. Whether you’re enjoying some quiet time together, spending quality time with family or entertaining friends, Phoenix outdoor kitchens, patios and pools create a strong nucleus  for a home.

A few years ago, we built an outdoor living room for this client, complete with weather-proof TV beneath a tile roof ramada. The outdoor fireplace’s design here is much like you would find inside in the living room or family room with a mantle and wall hung mirror. As is often the case though, the homeowners soon decided that just relaxing outdoors wasn’t enough. Something really important was missing. In this case, it was food grilled to perfection in the open air.

While many Phoenix landscape design companies deal with mostly pavers and plants, Desert Crest is a licensed Arizona general contractor, capable of complete construction projects. Adding an outdoor kitchen addition to the already present outdoor living space’s enclosure is something the client knew we were qualified to do and wasted no time in setting the wheels in motion to extend the usefulness of their backyard living area. What they wanted was a fully equipped outdoor culinary creation area and that’s exactly what they have today.

Phoenix outdoor kitchens come in all shapes and sizes, but the ultimate configuration offers you far more than built in gas grills under a shaded roof. Here we have both a food prep refrigerator and one for cold drinks, as well as lots of cabinet space for cooking, serving and eating utensils. To the left of the built in grill is an outdoor cook top and a fully functional sink for access to water on the fly and quick cleanup. The marble tile counter top is impervious to stains from both grease splatters and spills. It offers tons of space for food preparation and serving in this particular design.

All in all, as outdoor living spaces go, this homeowner’s backyard is now a fully functional haven and a beautiful gathering spot with both outdoor living room and kitchen shaded from the desert sun, yet open to the breeze. The dining area is separated only by the fireplace wall from their Phoenix outdoor kitchen’s cooking and serving space. Both are easily accessed without venturing out into the hot sun, as well as from the interior of the house. Both structures match the home both in the tile roofing and the stucco masonry. In fact, you can’t really tell that either of these outdoor rooms was added onto the home.

Fluid paving of Mexican clay tiles stretches from the pool deck’s area to the rest of the outdoor living space. The ramadas and backyard landscaping are all part of the overall enchantment that was once just an average backyard for the Phoenix area. Now it’s the mecca for both the residents and their friends, a place to retire to for many enjoyable hours over most of the year.

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Blending the existing with the new to extend Phoenix and Scottsdale patio designs doesn’t always mean matching what you have with what will be. Sometimes, the more creative and budget minded approach to be more eclectic about it all. There is something to be said for adding variety to life, and here’s one more place that you can do just that. Outdoor living spaces don’t always have to match every little detail to look sensational. Take this recently finished project at Desert Crest in the image above for example.

The original covered patio design featured one stucco pillar and stamped concrete flooring all in white to match the house. The space was far too small for anything besides a table that seats four and a grill, which is pretty standard sizing for a home builder when it comes to outdoor living spaces. For people living in this part of Arizona, a builder’s idea of a patio is never sufficient. Additionally, too much of one color is many times – just too much. We need a little more dimension to our world than that, especially at home where life is more relaxed.

Sure the optimum approach would be to tear out the original patio surface and redo the entire expanse. For many though, this simply isn’t possible if they are going to add the rest of the outdoor living features they really want. The cost involved may very well make many homeowners look for alternatives, and here is a great example of an excellent solution. There is no reason that the homeowner here, or even you, can revisit the patio pavers situation in a year or two and replace the original stamped concrete patio’s area with the more attractive Phoenix pavers. That’s one of the beauties of pavers, the fact that they always fit together like puzzle pieces.

In this backyard, there were two other needs to provide a solution for the homeowners’ desire for the perfect Scottsdale landscape design. First was the need for shade on the extended patio and secondly was the incorporation of an outdoor fireplace’s feature. Both were addressed in keeping with southwestern traditions with a keen eye on making the outdoor living space’s addition flow with other elements on the house.

While beehives are a very old form of Arizona fireplaces, they can also be very contemporary due to their sleek, curvaceous lines. They make the perfect compact outdoor fireplaces for small patios around Phoenix and Scottsdale, whether you want it to be wood burning or gas. Finishing the stucco masonry of the beehive and trellis ramada’s post footings in white connects the new construction with the home’s exterior beautifully. While the Pheonix pavers in the patio extension pick up the red tile roof, they also compliment the black frames of the windows. Making the ramada’s wood dark and weathered looking also compliments the window frames as well as the homeowner’s existing outdoor furniture.

This particular remodeled patio design’s appeal is not just a great blend of traditional and modern, but also creates more warmth to the outdoor living area. At the same time, the colors and materials used blend the old and the new very well. Scottsdale landscape design can be far more creative than you might think when it comes to adding onto your existing spaces.

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