Outdoor kitchens in Tenerife

Outdoor kitchens in Tenerife get used almost all year round: with mild winters, the terrace is as good for lunch in January as it is in August. A well-built outdoor kitchen turns the terrace into the place where you actually eat. A badly built one, within a couple of years, has swollen doors, rusty hinges and a faded worktop.

What stands up to sun and salt air

Sintered stone and porcelain worktops and units in stainless steel, compact phenolic laminate or aluminium are what stand up to sun and salt air; an indoor kitchen will not do outside, even under cover. Chipboard swells with moisture, edging comes unstuck in the heat and standard hinges rust within months near the sea. On a coastal terrace, the salt gets into everything.

For the worktop, these are the materials that work best outdoors:

That is why outdoors we recommend sintered stone and porcelain surfaces, in mid or light tones if the worktop will get direct sun. It is the typical situation in kitchens in the south of Tenerife, with terraces in the sun almost all year.

Units for outdoor use

The units in an outdoor kitchen are made from materials that do not swell or rust. The most common options are:

• Stainless steel. Near the sea, marine-grade steel (316) is the one to go for; ordinary stainless steel ends up pitting in the salt air.
• Compact phenolic laminate. Solid high-pressure panels that do not absorb water and stand up to the sun. They come in plain or wood-effect finishes.
• Powder-coated aluminium. Light and tough, a good option for frames and doors.
• High-density polyethylene. Very resistant to water and knocks, common on boats and in marinas.

Hardware, hinges and screws must also be rated for outdoor use. If they are indoor grade, they are the first thing to fail.

Barbecue, plancha and sink

For cooking outside every day, the most convenient set-up is a plancha griddle or a gas or electric barbecue, next to a sink with its own water supply and waste. Gas and electric models light and clean up quickly; charcoal gives a different flavour, but it makes more smoke and in flats it can cause problems with the neighbours. Position it so the prevailing wind carries the smoke away from the house and the neighbouring terraces.

An outdoor sink is what makes the kitchen genuinely useful, because you do not have to go indoors to wash every item. It needs a water supply, a waste connection and, ideally, a tap that will not suffer in the sun. In the design we leave clear worktop either side for preparing and serving.

Services to plan for

The services for an outdoor kitchen are decided before anything is fitted, and in many cases they mean building work on the terrace:

• Weatherproof sockets, protected against water and on their own circuit with an RCD.
• A cold water supply (and hot, if you want to wash up outside in comfort).
• A waste pipe connected to the drains, not to a rainwater gully.
• A gas supply or a ventilated space for the gas bottle, if the plancha or barbecue runs on gas.
• Outdoor lighting so you can use the kitchen after dark.

If the terrace is having building work done, the practical thing is to leave these services in place even if the outdoor kitchen is fitted later: opening up the floor twice costs more than doing it once.