Covered Outdoor Kitchen Ideas: Pergolas, Verandas and Glass Rooms
Updated: 14 hours ago
The best covered outdoor kitchen ideas share one principle: the roof must let smoke out and keep rain off, at the same time, on demand. A louvred-roof pergola does that better than anything else, which is why most of the outdoor kitchens we design sit under one. A glass veranda and a glass room with sliding sides are the alternatives, and each suits a different way of cooking and a different house. Here is how the three compare, and how to plan the kitchen and its cover as one structure.
Why an outdoor kitchen needs a roof in the UK
Cover is the single change that turns a kitchen used on warm weekends into one used across three seasons: the cook stays dry, the worktop stays clean and the units stay looking new. Our guide to outdoor kitchen ideas for UK gardens covers the wider planning; this one is about the roof.
Louvred pergola: the best cover for a kitchen with a barbecue
A louvred-roof pergola has rotating aluminium blades. Open them and the roof lets sun, air and barbecue smoke straight through; angle them for shade; close them fully and the roof is rain-tight, with the water carried away through gutters hidden inside the posts. For an outdoor kitchen with a barbecue that is the ideal combination, because you can open the blades above the grill while you cook and close them when you sit down.
It can be wall-mounted or free-standing, in powder-coated aluminium to match the units, with weather sensors that close the roof at the first sign of rain and LED lighting and infrared heating in the frame. Add sliding glass sides later and the pergola becomes a glass room, which our post on a pergola with a roof and sides explains.
Glass veranda: permanent cover with the light kept
A glass veranda is a fixed glass roof on slim aluminium posts against the house. It cannot open, so the smoke from a barbecue needs a clear route out: place the grill at the open front edge or the end of the veranda rather than deep under the glass, or fit an extraction hood if the kitchen is to sit further in. What the veranda gives in return is permanent, silent shelter and a roof that keeps daylight flooding the terrace and the rooms behind it.
It comes as a sloping glass roof or a cubic flat roof, with sliding glass or retractable screens at the sides and blinds to shade the roof on a south-facing terrace. It suits a household that grills at the edge and eats under cover.
Glass room: a kitchen you can close in
Close a veranda or pergola in with fixed glass ends and sliding glass doors and the kitchen is inside an outdoor room. On a cold evening the doors shut and the infrared heaters come on; in summer the whole front slides open and the room returns to a covered terrace. For cooking, the pergola-based glass room is the one to choose, because the louvred roof still opens for extraction while the sides are closed.
It is the answer for a family who want to eat outside in March.
More covered kitchen ideas
A freestanding pavilion or gazebo at the end of the garden, with the kitchen and a table under one roof, for a garden where the terrace is too small.
A lean-to against a garden wall: a veranda-style roof along a boundary wall shelters a straight run without touching the house.
A corner kitchen: an L-shaped run tucked into the corner of a pergola keeps the cooking out of the way of the seating.
Bar seating on the cook's side: a raised counter along the front of the run, under the roof, so guests talk to the cook rather than watch from the table.
A pizza oven at the open edge, where its flue can clear the roof.
Plan the cover and the kitchen together
The most common mistake is buying the kitchen, then finding a roof to go over it. Plan them as one project and the details resolve themselves: the pergola posts land clear of the units, the electrics for lighting, heating and the fridge run through the frame, the gas and water are brought out before the terrace is laid, and the whole structure is finished in one colour.
Position the barbecue where the smoke can leave, which under a pergola means beneath the louvres and under a veranda means at the open edge. Give the cook a run of worktop on the sheltered side and keep the table under the deepest part of the roof. Lighting over the worktop and softer lighting over the table are two circuits, not one.
Match the cover to the house
A louvred pergola in a dark powder-coat suits a modern house and a kitchen in brushed or black steel. A sloping glass veranda sits more quietly against a period house. A cubic flat-roof veranda or glass room reads as architecture on a rendered or brick modern home. If there is an orangery or glass extension, line the kitchen up with its doors.
Covered outdoor kitchen questions, answered
Can you have a barbecue under a pergola?
Yes, and a louvred-roof pergola is the best cover for one, because the blades open above the grill to let smoke out and close when it rains. Keep the grill clear of the posts and any fabric shading.
Can you barbecue under a glass veranda?
Yes, if the grill sits at the open front edge or the end of the roof so smoke escapes, or with an extraction hood if it is further under the glass. Do not place a charcoal grill directly under fixed glass without extraction.
Does a covered outdoor kitchen need planning permission?
In England an attached pergola, veranda or glass room is judged like a single-storey rear extension, usually permitted development up to 3 metres deep (4 metres detached) and 4 metres high; a freestanding one is treated as an outbuilding. Listed buildings need checking. Our guide to pergola planning permission sets out the limits.
What does a covered outdoor kitchen cost?
The kitchen and the cover are priced separately. Span, roof system, enclosed sides and heating drive the cover; run length, appliances and worktop drive the kitchen. Our guides to pergola cost and glass veranda cost explain what drives each.
Talk to our design team
Our outdoor kitchens are made to order in stainless steel and, more often than not, planned under one of our louvred pergolas or verandas from the first drawing. If you would like the kitchen and its cover designed together, send us a few photos of the terrace and we will propose both.
