20 inspiring summer kitchen ideas for your cottage
A summer kitchen can be the heart of your cottage—a place to cook, socialize, and enjoy the outdoors. With creativity and recycled materials, you can create functional and unique spaces for outdoor cooking. We’ve gathered the best ideas from cottage owners to inspire you!
1. A summer chef’s dream
From this charming gazebo-style summer kitchen, you can watch the happenings in the garden and keep an eye on the kids at play. Built directly onto the rock with bricks, this outdoor kitchen was leveled and painted. The countertops are cast from concrete, and the floor features natural stone. The ceiling is lined with wicker screens. Cookware and supplies are neatly stored on a railing rod and in bamboo boxes on shelves under the counter.
2. A new life for the dock
The floor of this recycled-material summer kitchen, along with the mobile service cart and table, is made from old dock planks. A vintage metal bed frame on the wall serves as storage for supplies, and old ladders are repurposed as shelves.
3. Your own backyard restaurant
This small backyard house with an archipelago atmosphere seamlessly combines indoor and outdoor spaces. It’s both a summer kitchen and a cozy cottage where you can nap or enjoy an evening in a charming setting. The built-in fireplace is wood-heated, and you can bring food from the oven to the table in just a few steps. Weathered chairs and an old, beautiful rag rug enhance the ambiance.
4. Like a fairy tale
Blend your summer kitchen seamlessly into its surroundings or make it the stunning centerpiece of your garden. A built-in outdoor fireplace serves as the heart and sets the mood. Lush vegetation adds to the coziness.
5. By the rock
The walls of your summer kitchen can also be natural rock if the location allows for it. This spot required a little excavation to make it suitable, and then the floor was cast with concrete. Holes were drilled into the rock for the roof beams, filled with polyurethane adhesive and sealant, and threaded rods were inserted. The gap between the roof and the rock was sealed with pitch to prevent rainwater from running into the kitchen.
6. A kitchen under the open sky
The outdoor kitchen on this lakeside sauna terrace was built from wood leftover a sauna construction project, sourced from the owners’ own forest. Inspired by an American magazine featuring a small backyard kitchen with diverse cooking methods, they included a charcoal grill, a gas-powered griddle, and a refrigerator. The dark-colored kitchen blends beautifully with the sauna and terrace.
7. Well-equipped
It’s fun to bustle around in an outdoor kitchen when it has equipment and utensils matching those of an indoor kitchen. Here the storage and kitchen functions are conveniently within reach. When you use hanging hooks and racks creatively, even a small space can hold surprisingly much. Herb plantings complete the setting.
Use hanging hooks, rods, and racks creatively, and even the smallest space can hold surprisingly much.
8. Doors open to the garden
This 12-square-meter summer kitchen in a farmhouse yard is made from recycled materials: windows from an old tugboat and roof tiles from a demolished chicken coop. The lumber was sawed from wind-fallen trees in the owners’ own forest. Volunteers built the stove corner and open fireplace using old reclaimed bricks. Large doors open airily towards both the main building and the garden, allowing you to sit in the doorway with a cup of coffee, sheltered from the sun.
9. Assembled from balcony doors
This cottage built from balcony doors hosts cottage guests throughout the summer from morning to evening. Whether it’s a hamburger bar, pancake parties, or crayfish feasts, everything works wonderfully here.
10. The hub of garden life
This summer kitchen is built from Kainuu bronze schist. The minerals in this dense-layered stone are tightly bound, making it weather- and wear-resistant. The tall fireplace was built by hand, with a foundation cast in a hole dug into the sandy soil. An impeccable Högfors cast iron firebox, found in the shed, fits perfectly. The stone paving in front of the fireplace is laid from self-cast concrete slabs.
11. Glazing extends the season
This summer kitchen by the seashore in Naantali in Southwest Finland offers stunning views. The challenge was that the wind from the sea sometimes made eating impossible. The solution was sliding doors, designed so that the tracks could be attached at the top, preventing needles, branches, and debris from getting into the tracks.
12. Fabulous shelving
This summer kitchen surrounded by large oaks is built using the frame of an old grill shelter. The back wall is boarded, and one side features old windows. The countertops on both sides of the versatile ceramic grill are from plywood removed during a floor renovation, covered with DC-fix contact paper. Beautiful and practical bowls, jugs, and baskets found at flea markets add softness and layers to the cooking spot. Placed on shelves and walls, they’re easily within reach.
A cooking spot on the terrace can be created with just a grill and an auxiliary countertop. Store utensils in baskets or on the wall.
13. The landscape takes center stage
Close to the lake, washing dishes becomes a pleasure. With some ingenuity and repurposed materials, you can easily create a neat spot for dishwashing and even cleaning fish.
14. Traditional, of course!
In this summer kitchen by Lake Höytiäinen, coffee is brewed and Karelian pies are warmed every morning. All you need is a wooden kuksa cup and a plate for the pies. The family loves that you always feel like you’re on a picnic. Glazing keeps the drafts away.
15. Stylish backdrop
This 1960s green-brown plank cottage has been modernly painted black, making a fine backdrop for the summer kitchen. The residents, who often cook outdoors, wanted a functional grill area on the terrace, so they built a small auxiliary kitchen next to the grill. The fine utensils would be suitable even for an urban home.
16. Solid as granite
This summer kitchen on Muhu Island, Saarenmaa, Estonia, is called the Three Stones Cottage because of the two massive granite boulders at the terrace corners and one inside. The windows are recycled from a demolished building. Water comes from a nearby well, and a refrigerator keeps drinks cold. There are magnificent views in every direction.
17. Summer kitchen on the cottage wall
This summer kitchen in Lohja, Southern Finland, is built against the wall of a lakeside cottage using recycled materials. The wooden wall shelf is a former box, and an old window became the door of a display cabinet. There’s plenty of room for dishes too.
A summer kitchen can be anything from a fully equipped cooking shelter to a small auxiliary worktop made from an old piece of furniture.
18. Small is beautiful
You can create a small cooking spot on the terrace with just a wooden countertop, an electric grill, and a handwashing basin on a stand. Particularly charming in this summer kitchen in Kemi, Northern Finland, are the legs of an old Singer sewing machine used as the base for the countertop.
19. All together
In the garden of a cottage in Laukaa, Central Finland, there’s a summer kitchen with a large table that fits the whole family. Dishwater heats up in a large kettle. As evening falls, guests can enjoy the open fireplace and cheerfully colored blankets.
20. Washing dishes is best done outdoors
Washing dishes is much more pleasant when you can watch trees and little birds. Here are two examples of dishwashing stations placed outside along the cottage wall.
