Inside-Outside Dining – Creating The Perfect Entertainment Space
There is one thing that is really predictable about our weather – and that is its unpredictability. Many a summer afternoon barbecue is spent sheltering under hastily purchased umbrellas, coaxing increasingly damp coals into a high enough cooking heat to avoid serving undercooked chicken.
If food and entertaining are important to you, creating the right environment is a major part of the whole experience. Wherever in the world you are located, the weather will be a major influencing factor to designing that space be cause you’ll need to be cool when it’s hot, warm when it’s cold, sheltered when it’s wet, and able to enjoy the fresh air when it’s dry.
The following are the key points you need to take into consideration when redesigning your cooking and entertaining space.
PROXIMITY BETWEEN COOKING & EATING SPACES
There’s nothing worse than being stuck on the kitchen away from all your guests. You invite them and wish to entertain them, and enjoy their company. And although food is a major part of this, and you enjoy the creativity of making delicious food for them, you don’t want to be missing out on all the fun.
Gone are the days when the kitchen was a separate room tucked away where all the mess, and noise and sweat take place. These days the kitchen is an open space that has become the very heart of every family home. When you have guests over, you want to be able to chop and prepare and sip your wine and be among the babble, a part of the conversations, joining in, ear wigging.
Your home may not have the physical space to achieve this without major remodelling. However, it is probably something you may want to look into and consider as a future investment. Construction methods, and the advance in materials such as upvc for windows, doors, conservatories, roof lights and orangeries is such that amazing things can be done to even the smallest of properties to open up spaces and create more room and light. Since covid, building regulations and planning permission have eased, off, allowing more flexibility in what you can do with your existing property. And any works done will help add value to your property in the long term.
BRINGING THE OUTSIDE IN, AND THE INSIDE OUT
Our weather may be unpredictable, but in the right environment, even the most inclement of climates can add to the overall atmosphere of your dining experience. If you’ve ever sat under a glass roof in the middle of a storm, eating delicious food with people you love, you’ll know what we mean – the theatrics make the experience unforgettable.
Equally, hot sunny weather may be, on the face of it, perfect for al fresco dining. But actually, sitting under the hot sun is sticky and uncomfortable, food gets spoilt, drinks get warm, and everyone ends up sunburnt, fractious and with pounding headaches.
The best solution is to be able to open up the back of your home into the garden, to provide a seamless flow from the inside to the outside. Depending on your style of house, space available, potential budget and personal taste, you can create a space that can be opened up to the elements if the weather is suitable, and shut it out if it turns nasty. However, you don’t want to shut away the light and sense of space and openness. Being creative and open to new technologies in construction materials , and the advance in upvc window technology, will drastically increase the range of options that you can choose from, allowing you to potentially boost your overall footprint and improve existing living arrangements, as well as allowing you to follow your dream of designing the perfect space for entertainment.