You’re probably quite thrilled about the process… Visions of entertaining in a new luxurious outdoor space playing in your mind like a slideshow for an HGTV ad. There is much to be excited about!
Unfortunately, you’re excited until you realize how much effort it is.
If you have already begun the process and logistics of just the outdoor kitchen design, it’s likely you’re feeling…
Lost.
Confused.
Overwhelmed.
Let’s be honest…
Outdoor kitchen design can be downright stressful.
You can draw it by hand on paper, which is fine… If you’re an architect.
Many retailers will offer a line drawing option which is okay, it just doesn’t do much for your vision. It’s pretty hard to imagine what a stick figure version of your outdoor kitchen will look like in your backyard.
Some designers can even offer an advanced 3D model of your dream outdoor kitchen. The problem? You have to pay for it. You’ve locked yourself into paying for a design before you even know if you like it or not.
The wave of questions crash so quickly in your mind you can hardly keep up…
How do I begin?
What do I have space for?
How do we fit appliances beyond a grill and storage?
Is there free outdoor kitchen design software?
Can it be built the way I want?
How will this actually look?
These are all important questions that have to be addressed.
Designing your outdoor kitchen can be a huge time investment. Hours of research is involved to make informed decisions on space, layout, grills, storage, and appliances. Unfortunately, there is a lot of inaccurate information online that complicates this process further.
With all of the challenges that go along with outdoor kitchen design, many homeowners end up frustrated with no progress to be had. They call it a truce and bring on a contractor to handle the job.
The challenge doesn’t end there.
Then the difficulty lies in finding a contractor that is experienced in building outdoor kitchens. Just between you and me, there aren’t many out there. And if you’re lucky enough to find one, they are in high demand. Skill level of your contractor directly correlates to the quality of outdoor kitchen you end up with.
Depending on the decisions you make, the process from start to finish can take anywhere from several weeks to several months. You know what that means?
By the time your outdoor kitchen is ready to use, prime barbecue season has already gone and passed.
So what to do about this? You want your outdoor kitchen now, not 4 months from now.
That’s where we come in. We’ve made it easier for you to design your outdoor kitchen without any skill needed.
Read on to learn about our free outdoor kitchen design software.
We at RTA can empathize with the struggles of designing and building an outdoor kitchen. Streamlining this process is the driving force behind what led us into the outdoor living industry.
Researching is exhausting… There’s a lot of conflicting information online… And it is challenging to find a local contractor or designer to help.
We understand there are many roadblocks on the path to designing your outdoor kitchen – it’s enough to make some people give up. Our mission is to remove those roadblocks and simplify the process as much as possible.
Our solution to this problem was to create an online outdoor kitchen design tool.
This free outdoor kitchen design software allows you to…
Design,
Configure,
Reconfigure,
Visualize,
and even quote outdoor kitchens in a matter of minutes.
This outdoor kitchen design tool is truly a passion project.
Several hundred hours have been invested into developing version one. We spent so much time on this design tool because we didn’t want this to be just another gimmicky sales grab. There’s already too much of that online. We wanted to do it right and make it valuable for anyone who is attempting to design and build an outdoor kitchen.
We all have enough stress in our lives, designing an outdoor kitchen doesn’t have to be another stressor.
We believe it should be enjoyable.
The RTA outdoor kitchen design software puts you in control of the destiny of your outdoor kitchen space.
You have the ability to design your outdoor kitchen from the comfort of your own home…
Instantly.
You get the immediate gratification of being able to visualize your design right in front of your eyes. No more mystery and crossing your fingers that the project comes out as you had imagined.
You can make tweaks all with a simple click of the mouse. Don’t want the storage door? Try swapping it out for a refrigerator. Don’t want a natural gas grill? Swap in a charcoal or pellet grill. Don’t want a gray countertop? See what taupe or white looks like.
You can configure the layout and location of appliances as well. No longer are you limited to the basic “stock photo” standard version of outdoor kitchens.
The outdoor kitchen design tool allows you to create unique kitchens to match your unique desires.
Can you see how easy it is to design your outdoor kitchen? Let’s go ahead and test it.
Now that you’ve heard all about our outdoor kitchen design software, it’s time to get down to brass tacks.
How does it work?
This tool is incredibly simple to use. No technical skills are needed, just your imagination.
However, I would like to walk you through the process and make sure you are completely confident.
Below I will show you a picture of a custom outdoor kitchen. We’ll be building this together using the outdoor kitchen design tool.
There are only five steps from start to finish, so you’ll catch on quickly.
We’ll have your outdoor kitchen designed in just a few clicks, read on to see how.
And so it begins!
As you will see, there are five outdoor grill island layout options for you to choose from on this page. Straight, L-Shaped right and left aligned, U-Shaped, and Galley.
Each design has their own advantages and you can play around with each one to see which is best for you. You may already have a layout in mind to try.
For this example, we will be selecting the L-Shaped left aligned outdoor kitchen.
Once you’ve selected your desired layout, it is time to move on to the next step.
This is where the options begin to open up for you. Since we have chosen an L-Shaped island, we actually have two separate islands to consider.
Notice near the upper left corner there is a 3D image of the L-Shaped island. The island on the right is highlighted in blue. This is the current island we are working on designing. Make sure to keep this in mind as you move through the steps.
For any island design other than straight, you will see a note on the screen. For the L-Shape, it says “Note: The connecting island is an 8ft bar island”. All this saying is that the second or connecting island will always be an 8ft bar island.
For this example, we will be selecting the 8ft island.
Now it’s time to decide how you would like your appliances to be laid out on the grill islands. There are a ton of options here, but no need to feel overwhelmed.
You can always go back to previous steps and test the look of a new layout. That’s the beauty of this outdoor kitchen design software, nothing is set in stone. You can go back and forth as many times as you wish and all for free.
Remember to refer to the 3D model in the upper left corner when designing your appliance layout. The island you are designing will be highlighted in blue.
Based on our example, we are working on the grill island on the right hand side. To me, it appears the selection I have chosen in a light blue box most closely resembles the layout pictured.
Now that I’ve selected the correct option for the example, I move on to the next page.
As you will see in the image below, we are now working on the grill island on the left hand side.
You will notice that all three options have a large red area that says island overlap. This is where the two grill islands connect and so we are unable to put appliances there.
Back to our example.
It is difficult to see in the example picture, however I know there is only one large appliance on this side.
I am sure you will notice that all three options do not exactly fit the design pictured. The appliance pictured doesn’t qualify as extra large like the first option. The other two have two accessories, whereas the example picture only has one.
I will show you how to remedy this in a later step. For now, we are going to select option two.
Let’s move on to step four.
Alright. You’ve chosen your island layout, picked the size, and chosen the appliance layout. It’s time to decide what grills, appliances, and accessories you are going to put into your grill island.
You will notice in this first image that all the spaces are empty. This is how it will appear to you at first. You click through each of the arrows to place a desired appliance in the desired location. The system has automatically filtered out what items will fit with each other.
Based on the 3D model, we are working on the right hand side island first.
Before I finish filling in the appliances, I want to point something out to you.
You may notice that occasionally an exclamation point in a red circle will come on the screen as you browse. This means that there is overlap in the accessories you selected and there is not enough room for both of them.
Thankfully, the options are practically endless so this doesn’t happen much.
Back to designing this outdoor kitchen.
Now that everything is filled in, we have a spice rack, 30” grill, double drawer combo, sink, and a single access door. It’s looking great so far, now it’s time to design the other island.
All we have on this side is a single pull out trash. Remember what I said earlier about this layout not matching the design of this kitchen? Well, the fix is really easy. I just leave the other space empty. Yes, it’s really that simple.
Finally, we move on to the fifth and final step.
You’ve completed all the previous steps and now it’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Now you will see the outdoor kitchen you designed digitally rendered right in front of you. Pretty neat, huh?
By default, the kitchen will appear in stacked stone gray. You will notice on the side there are color options for both the counter and surround.
In the example picture, the surround is stacked stone brown. The counter, however, is in granite which we do not currently have available on the 3D design tool. Selecting the light gray option makes a close enough approximate to get the idea.
Better yet, you can click and drag on the screen to view your outdoor grill island from any angle. Want to see an aerial view? No problem.
You can even scroll your mouse to get a closer look at everything. Curious about the surround texture? Go ahead, take a close peek.
With the RTA outdoor kitchen design tool, everything is within your grasp.
Now, there’s only one thing left to do.
This video of Charlie Moore, ‘The Mad Fisherman‘, designing his RTA outdoor kitchen with our design tool will put you at ease.
As we’ve been saying, it really is as easy as a few clicks!
It took just a few minutes for Charlie to design his kitchen and ordered shortly thereafter. As you can see in the video, the exact kitchen he designed arrived in his yard and came together in one afternoon.
Doesn’t get much easier than that!
Charlie said himself, “Even a solid C minus student like me can go onto rtaoutdoorliving.com, design this within 15 minutes, and within 4 weeks the whole thing is done.”
You can do this!
So what’s next?
So you’ve designed your outdoor kitchen and it looks absolutely perfect. You’re confident this is the design you want to move forward with and build in your backyard. Now what?
On the right hand side of the page displaying your design, there is a button that says “Free Quote”. Click on it.
You will be led to a simple form to fill out. Basic contact info, timeline for your project, and any additional comments.
Your design will be sent to one of our staff members to assess and create a quote. They will get back to you and answer any questions you may have.
And there you have it. It’s that easy. We can guide you from not knowing where to begin to a full outdoor kitchen design (and quote on the way) in minutes.
Our goal was to make this process as easy as possible for you.
We know how busy you all are and the process of designing an outdoor kitchen can seem daunting… Like a chore. We wanted to remove this stress and make the process enjoyable.
Our outdoor kitchen design software removes all stress and hesitation so you can: Dream it. Build it. Live it.