Outdoor Kitchens, Fire & Light.
The Reason It All Exists.
Ace of Decks designs and builds outdoor kitchens, fireplaces and fire features, and architectural lighting systems across Chicago’s western suburbs. The deck, the cover and the screens create the room. This is what fills it: the meal cooking, the fire burning, the light that makes 9pm in October feel like the best hour of the day.
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What belongs in this part of the build?
Everything you actually use. Kitchens, fire and light are where outdoor projects succeed or fail, because they demand gas, electrical, water and ventilation planned before construction rather than after. We design kitchens, fire and lighting in 3D alongside the structure itself, so every appliance, burner and fixture has its utilities routed invisibly and its place in the composition from day one.
Outdoor Kitchens
Built-in grill islands, counters, storage and refrigeration in weatherproof materials, designed for how you actually cook and positioned for the conversation rather than against a wall.
Fireplaces & Fire Features
Gas fireplaces, fire tables, and fire pits that anchor the gathering space and stretch the season deep into Illinois fall, designed with sightlines and seating in mind.
Architectural Lighting
Low-voltage lighting systems: riser lights, rail lighting, downlights and landscape accents on integrated controllers. Light layered like the architecture it reveals.
What does an outdoor kitchen or fire feature cost in Illinois?
Kitchens, fire and lighting are almost always designed as part of an integrated project, so these ranges describe typical investment levels within a completed 3D design.
Lighting Systems
Full low-voltage architectural lighting across a deck or outdoor room, with controllers and integration.
Fire Features
Gas fire tables, fire pits, and outdoor fireplaces with utilities, surrounds, and seating designed in.
Outdoor Kitchens
Custom built-in kitchens with grill, counters, storage and refrigeration, in weatherproof construction.
Flagship Full-Environment Projects
Deck, cover, screens and kitchen designed and built as one complete outdoor environment.
Design & planning retainer: $3,000, with $1,500 applied toward your build when you proceed. All design concepts, 3D renderings, layouts, and specifications remain the exclusive property of Ace of Decks until a construction agreement is signed.
Designed last, planned first
Gas lines run under the deck. Ventilation and lighting live in the cover. Heaters pair with the screens. That’s why the kitchen and fire are planned in the very first design conversation even though they are the last things installed. Retrofitting utilities into a finished project is the most expensive way to get them.
Specified around how you cook.
An outdoor kitchen is the easiest place on a project to add money that never gets used. A second refrigerator, a warming drawer, a run of cabinetry longer than anyone needs. It all fits, and it all prices.
We build the appliance package around how you actually cook and how you actually entertain, which usually means a shorter run finished to a better standard. The budget that would have gone into a drawer you never open goes into the counter material, the lighting and the utilities underneath, which are the parts you cannot upgrade later without taking the stone apart.
The services underneath decide what is possible.
Kitchens and fire features are the last things installed and close to the first things planned, because everything that makes them work runs under the deck or through the walls long before an appliance arrives.
- Gas sized to the whole load, not one burner. A grill, a side burner, a fire feature and a heater on the same run need a line sized for all of them at once. Undersized supply shows up as a fire feature that will not hold a flame while the grill is lit.
- Dedicated circuits and GFCI throughout. Refrigeration, lighting and any powered element on their own protected circuits, with weather-rated boxes and covers.
- Water and drainage, if there is a sink. Supply is the easy half. The drain, and how the line is winterised, is the half that gets skipped and then freezes.
- Ventilation under any cover. A grill under a solid roof or a louvered system needs clearance and airflow designed in. This is a safety item, not a preference.
- Winterisation planned at design. Shutoffs reachable, lines that drain, appliances rated to stay outside through a Chicago February.
We specify the appliance package around how you actually cook rather than filling the run with everything that fits. A smaller, better-specified kitchen that gets used every week beats a longer one with a warming drawer nobody opens.
Where we build
We design and build kitchens, fire and lighting across Chicago’s western suburbs, including Hinsdale, Oak Brook, Naperville, Burr Ridge, Barrington, St. Charles, Geneva, Wheaton and Downers Grove, serving DuPage, Kane and Will County from Aurora, Illinois.
Kitchen, fire & lighting questions, answered directly
How much does an outdoor kitchen cost in the Chicago suburbs?
Custom built-in outdoor kitchens at Ace of Decks typically range from $25,000 to $80,000+ depending on appliances, counter length, materials, and utility runs. Kitchens designed into a larger multi-layer project are priced as part of the integrated system, which is where they perform best.
Can an outdoor kitchen survive Chicago winters?
Yes, when it’s built for them. We spec weatherproof cabinet construction, freeze-tolerant counters, and appliances rated for outdoor exposure, with water lines designed for winterization. A properly built outdoor kitchen in Illinois needs a seasonal shutdown routine, not a rebuild every spring.
Gas fireplace, fire table or fire pit: which is right?
It depends on how you gather. A fireplace anchors a wall and creates a defined room with real presence. A fire table seats people face-to-face and doubles as a surface. A fire pit is the most social and the most open. In design, we start from your seating count and sightlines. The feature follows the gathering, not the other way around.
Does a fire feature extend the outdoor season?
Meaningfully. A gas fireplace or fire feature paired with overhead cover and screen or vinyl walls keeps an outdoor room comfortable well into November in most of our service area, which is exactly why we design fire, cover and enclosure together rather than as separate purchases.
What kind of lighting works best on a deck?
Layered low-voltage lighting: riser lights on stairs for safety, rail or post lighting for ambient glow, downlights from ceiling structures for task areas, and accent lighting on landscape and architectural features. Everything runs on integrated controllers, so the whole composition dims and schedules as one system.
Can you add a kitchen or fire feature to an existing deck or patio?
Often yes. The determining factors are structural capacity and utility access, both of which we evaluate during design. Gas, electrical, and water runs are the hidden cost in retrofits, which is why kitchens, fire and lighting are most economical when planned into the original structure.
Start with a conversation,
not a quote form
A free 15-minute discovery call. No pressure, just a conversation about what you’re picturing and whether we’d be a good fit.
Book a Discovery CallAce of Decks · Aurora, IL · (630) 354-8887
