EXPERTISE: OUTDOOR KITCHENS

Outdoor kitchens have always been a nice addition to a backyard, allowing the area to be a popular spot to host barbecues, parties and small gatherings. These spaces allow homeowners to bring the comfort of their indoor kitchen to their exterior, creating an enjoyable setting for cooking and dining. With features like built-in grills, sinks and cabinets, these outdoor kitchens are designed for both practicality and style.

As more homeowners seek to elevate their outdoor living areas, it is best to hire a company known for their expertise. To find out more about outdoor kitchen projects, House and Home spoke with Steve Matteo, co-owner of Matteo Family Kitchens & Flooring Inc.

What is your busiest time for outdoor kitchen projects, and are there any trends you see during those times?
An outdoor kitchen project is something that we start working on right after the snow ends. From March 1 through mid-March is when it starts picking up. ... As people are setting up their outdoor living spaces and getting prepared for spring and summer, they start thinking, "Let's do the kitchen outside this year."

How do costs differ between indoor and outdoor kitchen projects, and what aspects tend to have the biggest impact on pricing?
Outdoor cabinets, in general, are just more expensive because they have to be made to withstand the weather—rain, cold, snow, ice, wind and everything else. Now, an indoor kitchen is generally two-to-three times the size of an outdoor kitchen, with most outdoor kitchens being 8-to-10 feet long.

But, even if you don't have as much space, cost-wise, the cost of the cabinets could be 20-to-50% more than the cabinets you'd put in your interior kitchen.

Your increased costs can also arise because you're limited with what countertops you can use for an outside kitchen. There are certain stones that you can use outside, but stones sitting in the direct sun can etch, which looks like little cracks in the finish, and it can also fade. A very popular countertop material for outdoor kitchens is porcelain. That's a more expensive material in general, so your costs go up, but the size of the material is less, so it's not terrible.

Since outdoor cabinets need to withstand weather, what materials, designs, colors and style options are available for home owners to choose from?
With outdoor kitchens, there are several wood looks [that are popular], you see a lot of teak or even fake wood looks. You don't get too much pure white because white can have a little bit of a color change after being exposed to sunlight and the outdoor elements. That's why you see blues, blacks and some gray colors becoming more prevalent.

The materials are a basic, polycarbonate plastic material, similar to Trex decking. That's they same type of material they are using to build these cabinets. The frames are all stainless or galvanized steel because that doesn't rust, break down or fall apart too easily. So, the metal framing is stainless or galvanized steel and then you have the composite materials for your colors. 

For individuals considering an outdoor kitchen, what features do you recommend to balance budget, durability and overall aesthetics?
I think everything starts with the grill. Do you want to reuse your Blackstone grill and just want to fit it in between the cabinets? Or do you have a charcoal grill you want to incorporate? We've seen the change where people want the built-in grill, where it sits on top of the cabinets, and that's a beautiful look—it's more permanent.

From there, everything revolves around your grilling station and how you will utilize it. If you are someone who grills often, you'll need drawers and a trash can cabinet built in for your convenience and so it's easy to clean up. Maybe you want to use your regular grill and just sandwich a cabinet on either side and all you need is just a little countertop workspace to hold the hamburger buns. Or maybe you want some storage space for plates that will withstand the weather. It really depends on how big or how often you want to use the grill and the surrounding space.

Outdoor sinks are also very popular because people don't want to take all that stuff inside and clean it. Instead, you can wash it right there in your outside sink, using your garden hose as a water line, but it's an actual faucet. We can build any size outdoor kitchen you can imagine or just sandwich a couple cabinets with a tiny gas grill, it really depends on preference.

Matteo Family Kitchens & Flooring Inc.
Woodstown, N.J.
(856) 769-2490 | MatteoKitchens.com

Published (and copyrighted) in House & Home, Volume 25, Issue 12 (March/April 2026)
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