With as much emphasis on form as function, the Outdoor Kitchen pushes the parameters of outdoor design and alfresco luxury while still keeping in harmony with the garden elements. “This is something I wanted to do for five years,” Jamie says. “I was just looking for the right partner.” With a long list of successful Electrolux collaborations already under his belt, the brand seemed the obvious choice. “I saw the great things that Electrolux was doing and thought wow — if we could just convert some of this technology into an outdoor space it would be a really innovative product and be at the forefront of exterior design in terms of outdoor kitchens.” So that’s what they did. “It’s not enough these days to pop a barbecue out the back and go for it. We have a much more sophisticated, educated audience who expect much more,” Jamie explains, continuing, “and that’s who we wanted to cater for with the Outdoor Kitchen.”
The Outdoor Kitchen is a distinctive, custom design to fit any outdoor space and evolves organically, growing alongside the garden. Its distinctive form offers a unique outdoor cooking and entertaining area that is environmentally friendly and a testament to increasingly sophisticated outdoor areas. “The idea is you’re able to cook with herbs that actually grow out of the kitchen, in your kitchen,” he explains. “The planter beds are actually embedded and that’s something I do a lot in the customised sense, but I’ve never put it into a commercial product that’s able to be bought from stores.” Greenery and plant life is an integral part of the design. Customers who purchase the product are given a suggested plant list so they can select plants that are suited to the area they live in.
The display kitchen features rosemary and aloe, sage and tassel ferns. The tassel ferns sit off the back of the kitchen and provide drama, softening the architecture. The idea of the aloe is to get a structural element into it and an architectural centrepiece to attract people to it — almost like a green magnet — while the rosemary around the base is a drought-tolerant plant that provides food for the table. The whole kitchen has been built for the outdoors. “The integrated barbecue is something I specify into projects all the time, but the fact that we have embedded this permanently into the bench with exteriorgrade Corian makes it like a real kitchen, only outdoors,” Jamie explains. All the corners have been rounded off for a sophisticated aesthetic and have been finished with a rubber coating to make the kitchen a bit more tactile. Sustainability was also key here. Only FSC-grade timber, which comes from managed forests, was used and the sink has been cleverly designed to drain into two planter boxes before the water reaches the ground. The sink can be connected to an irrigation system so you are constantly reusing water.
The kitchen also features the gorgeous — and energy-efficient — Electrolux induction cooktop, which not only cooks your meal to perfection, but doesn’t get too hot so is also great for areas where kids are running around. Designed to meet contemporary life, the Outdoor Kitchen is not just a piece of furniture or a utilitarian space, it’s an outdoor area designed to draw people out of their houses and into their gardens.