Their outdoor kitchen is built for year-round entertaining

"We do most of our entertaining outdoors," says Georgia Leonard, "and I don't like to be constantly dashing back to the house." So she and her husband, Bob, asked landscape architect John Vogley of Rancho Mirage, California, to design an outdoor kitchen that would keep them near their guests but wouldn't block views from the house. Built for year-round entertaining in their desert climate, the kitchen is full of ideas that would also work in cooler areas of the West. Dropped 14 inches below patio level, the kitchen maintains a low profile. Standing, cooks are eye-to-eye with guests seated at a 2- by 11 -foot counter that rises 30 inches above the patio. The counter screens any mess and provides a generous surface for spreading out a buffet.

Supported by hefty stone-faced concrete-block columns, a trellis of glue-laminated 6-by-12 and 6-by-10 beams spans the kitchen and patio area, tying back into the house's roof. Over the beams and spaced on 14-inch centers, 3-by-3s reduce the sun's penetration by about 30 percent.

Below-counter cabinets are made of a vinyl-covered fiberboard commonly used for outdoor signs. Sawn edges are banded with brushed aluminum channels.

At night, the glass-block walls are backlit by a track of small lights encased in plastic tubing. The lights can be reached by removing a stone at the end of the counter.