Beyond the barbecue   | National Post

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The pandemic may have made life screwy, but it also opened up design changes at home that, four years later, are still being heavily leaned into, especially outdoors.  

“There’s no question we aggressively grew our business post 2019 as a result of COVID,” says Daniel Albo, president of Outeriors, specialists in outdoor kitchens and cabinetry. “When restaurants were closed, people couldn’t entertain indoors, making the outdoor landscape and outdoor kitchens a new-found entertaining space.” 

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Vignettes at Albo’s 10,000-square-foot showroom in Vaughan showcase how far the outdoor kitchen has come. Forget sstandalone barbecue. These are integrated into the kitchens, including the egg-shaped numbers, dropped in just so.  

The cabinetry and countertops are sleek and outdoor-rated to withstand winters, making the host-friendly spaces as elaborate as their indoor counterparts.  

There are heated drawers to keep garlic bread and buns warm, and flat-top grills for smash burgers or pancakes, for those who want to serve breakfast on the deck.  

Under-counter refrigeration ensures drinks are stored tidily, an improvement on the janky beer cooler on the deck. There are undermount sinks for wash-up and side burners to boil pots of water for lobster and pasta, as well as smokers, pizza ovens and Argentinean grills.   

“When we started the business six years ago, rustic-looking materials were trending,” says Albo, referring to “traditional wood shaker-panel doors and intricate cabinetry. Post COVID, people are gravitating to flat-panel cabinetry and a minimalistic look,” he says. “Powder-coated marine-grade aluminum has taken off.”  

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Albo’s orders skew earthy, hue-wise. “Darker shades make up 90 percent of our projects,” he says. “The colours we see most often are Harbour Blue, which is a deep tone, Graphite, a gunmetal grey, or Mika, a taupe-bronze.”  

But bolder colours are hitting the terrace, too. That’s the big takeaway from KBIS, the Kitchen and Bath Show held this past February in Las Vegas, says Yosh Chhabra, over the phone from Bath Emporium Castle Kitchens & Appliance. He’s a senior designer at the 14,000-square-foot showroom in Markham. Flashy turquoise cabinetry and Alfa Forni pizza ovens from Italy turned heads, says Chhabra, noting “the high-end ovens in yellow and Ferrari red” make a punchy statement outdoors. 

He also praises Hestan’s Campania pizza ovens that were shown in teal, orange, yellow and other shades at KBIS. Ditto Lynx Grills’ launch of eight vibrant shades on its barbecue panels, including blue and red; the colours were chosen with the paint company Sherwin-Williams.  

“To replace the more rustic look, there were smoother stone finishes on cabinetry,” says Chhabra, listing luxurious kitchen brands including Home Refinements by Julien, Urban Bonfire and Station Grill. 

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Pickering-based Garden Living, a company focused on luxury outdoor kitchens, has seen a heightened interest in them since the pandemic. Their big flex is that every cabinet to the square inch is made to order.    

“We manufacture, design and build in-house,” says Garden Living’s vice-president Ryan Prendergast. “We have designers in-house, so it’s quite a quick process.” 

Outdoor kitchens need to look great from every angle, since people might be walking around them. At Garden Living, it’s a party in the back and the front: “There are no visible seams where the cabinets join on the backside,” says Prendergast. “On our custom panels, you get up to 12 feet of continuous grain. This could be wood, solid, metallics, hundreds of different colours.” 

Friends can pull up a seat to watch the chef, too, now that the trend of islands with integrated seating has grown substantially, says Prendergast. It was much different “five to six years ago, when smaller kitchens were popular.” 

Topping the outdoor islands are countertops that borrow the same chic design directive as the indoor ones: sultry black, earthy brown, veiny white that mimics marble. The popular Dekton brand is a go-to, says Prendergast. 

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Caesarstone, another countertop giant, has just launched its One of a Kind collection in quartz and porcelain; the largely sandy-toned porcelain picks are rated outdoors. There is no special maintenance required, and they can be used anywhere outdoors, including barbecue counters, sinks and backsplashes, or even on patio tables and poolside bar tops.  

If going custom isn’t possible, Home Depot Canada has a number of aesthetic options for outdoor kitchens.  

“People with smaller outdoor spaces are leaning into the modular-appliance trend,” says Janna Millious, senior barbecue merchant at Home Depot Canada, listing the Bakerstone Outdoor Multi-Function Cooking Centre as an example.  

 “It’s a multifunction barbecue. It grills, has a pizza oven, a griddle, storage and foldable side tables.” 

 Or you could buy the cooking components separately and build around them. 

“A surprising trend is that people now have more than one barbecue in their yard,” says Millious, “just like how they have multiple kitchen appliances in their indoor kitchen.”  

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