The Outdoor Kitchen We Couldn’t Find on Pinterest—So We Built It

Photography by Michelle Nash

When we started designing the outdoor kitchen at Casa Zuma, I had a clear picture in my mind—and more than a thousand images saved to my “Beach House” Pinterest board. Still, I couldn’t find an outdoor kitchen that captured what I wanted ours to feel like.

So many of the spaces I saw leaned toward stainless steel, polished concrete, and materials that felt a little too perfect. I kept imagining something warmer and more soulful: teak weathered by the salt air, terracotta that looked like it had been there for decades, a stucco-covered pizza oven, and a garden growing around it all. Equal parts Mallorcan kitchen, Oaxacan courtyard, and relaxed California living.

Now that it’s finished, the outdoor kitchen feels less like an addition to the house and more like a natural extension of it—a place designed around the way we love to cook, gather, and spend as much time outside as possible.

From a Travel Mood Board to the Finished Space

To create this space, Adam and I turned to our camera rolls. We pulled up years of photos from our travels: meals eaten at long wooden tables in dusty courtyards, tiled restaurant kitchens, old stucco walls, and pizza ovens glowing orange at dusk. The reference folder we eventually handed to our landscape architect, Michael Fioré, was half travel diary, half mood board.

Michael fully got the vision. Rather than treating the outdoor kitchen as one long bank of appliances, he designed a series of distinct structures that work together: a large countertop and grill station, a separate pizza oven, and a bar-height teak table at the center of it all. The arrangement makes the space feel collected and architectural rather than like a conventional outdoor kitchen dropped into the yard.

The landscaping was just as important as the kitchen itself. An ornamental olive tree anchors the space, surrounded by lavender, rosemary, citrus, and terracotta pots filled with herbs. The plants soften the architecture and create the feeling that the kitchen has been part of the landscape for much longer than it actually has.

Designed for the Way We Gather

The counters do a lot of work in this space. We used Caesarstone Porcelain in Aluminous, and it serves as an extra prep surface, a spot to set out ingredients for build-your-own pizza nights, and a natural gathering place where everyone can hang with a drink while dinner is cooking. We paired a teak table with our Beach House Counter Stools, which are made from teak and quick-dry materials designed to live outside.

The outdoor kitchen also connects directly to the kitchen inside through an oversized window with sliding glass panels. An exterior counter creates a pass-through for drinks, platters, and whatever else is moving between the two spaces. When the window and nearby doors are open, the line between indoors and out almost disappears.

For the main cooking station, we chose the Zwilling Flammkraft Grill. It’s fully integrated into the countertop, so the entire setup feels clean and custom. The grill combines powerful infrared heat with individual cooking and warming zones, making it possible to cook an entire meal outside—not just whatever happens to be going on the grill.

Terracotta, Teak, and the Pizza Oven of My Dreams

The material palette is what gives this kitchen its soul. We used Clay Imports antique matte terracotta tile to bring warmth, texture, and a sense of age to the backsplash.

The tile choice began with a photo I took in Mexico a few years ago. A small restaurant kitchen had terracotta running across the countertop and up the backsplash, and I remember standing there trying to absorb the earthy warmth of the space. I returned to that image again and again throughout the design process.

And then there’s the Forno Piombo pizza oven—something I’ve always dreamed about. We built it into its own station and covered the dome in smooth stucco, giving it the feeling of an old-world oven you might stumble upon in the Italian countryside. It’s large enough to make several pizzas at once, which means the pizza parties I pictured throughout the renovation can finally become reality.

After six years of saving images, changing plans, and looking for a space that matched the one in my imagination, we finally made it. And the best part is that it’s designed to get better with time.

The Resources

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Design & Landscaping

• Landscape architect: Michael Fioré
• Architect: Doug Burdge
• Builder: RS Wood
• Countertops: Caesarstone Porcelain in Aluminous
• Tile: Clay Imports Thin Brick Antique Matte Tile

Cooking

• Grill: Zwilling Flammkraft Natural Gas Grill
• Pizza Oven: Forno Piombo Enzo 90 Pizza Oven Kit

Furniture

• Table: Yogi Tall Teak Table
• Counter Stools: Casa Zuma Beach House Counter Stools