Home Front: Turn your garden into the dream summer space
Cate Burren of Angel and Blume Interior Design looks at how to furnish your garden when the sun finally comes out
There was a time at the start of the pandemic, when we had just got our heads round the idea that the only recreational space we were allowed to use was our gardens, that the sun shone for days in a row and you couldn’t buy a set of garden dining chairs and tables for love nor money.
Many of us have found since then that the purchases made at that time didn’t really pass the longevity test and garden furniture bought in haste has been repented at leisure. It turns out (and I feel the garden designers out there rolling their eyes) that furnishing a garden space requires just as much, if not more, planning and lead-time to equip it as any interior dining room or sitting room.
With this in mind, should you find yourself midsummer having done nothing towards the planning or purchasing of outside furnishings or accessories, I would argue that it is better to think longer term than the imminent weekend with the promise of sunshine, and carefully plan what would be ideal in your garden next year and beyond, and work backwards from there.
I am not suggesting that you should not enjoy sitting or eating in your garden this year, or that there aren’t things that can be done or purchased right now, it’s just that approaching it with a longer term view helps remove regret when future summers roll around.
So what do you need to consider when buying garden furniture? I think that in the same way that you want your home to have a unified look, your garden furniture should reflect the overall style of your garden and also, hopefully, your interiors vibe. This can be tricky because a lot of garden furniture has a similar look (rattan and/or teak immediately come to mind), but you might want to think differently, or supplement your look, with boldly coloured metal furniture (fermob.com), chilled, ultra comfortable statement pieces (sohohome.com/outdoors) or an Odd Old Rocker (houseofhackney.com/uk/products/the-garden-room), which personally makes my heart beat faster.
As ever, don’t forget lighting, which initially seems a bit daft when talking about the garden, but if there is some good light around your dining table and seating area, it will mean you will want to stay sitting outside longer when the evenings are warm. Some form of lighting right over the dining table is best so that you can see what you are eating, but if there is no way of achieving that, the good range of rechargeable battery lamps available are lovely to use on an outdoor table or around a seating area as the sun sets.
There are a whole range of other considerations which if you go to any well-equipped restaurant garden will become obvious, that you may or may not want to incorporate into your own garden. Some shade makes things much more pleasant when we do get that intense summer sun, some warmth when it turns chilly (a heater or a firepit) and also some storage, or just an outside surface such as a trolley or side table, for all those things that you will need if you are going to eat out or enjoy the garden for a few hours and don’t want to be endlessly going in and out of the house to collect.
Think carefully about the quantity of furniture you need. It’s important to be able to accommodate guests comfortably, but you don’t want to have huge volumes of furniture that needs to be maintained and stored when the weather turns and let’s face it, in this country, that can be from mid-September to late April. Unless you entertain regularly and you have space in the garden and for storage, I would suggest having garden furniture that accommodates the regular users of the garden and supplementing this with furniture from inside when required.
For example, you might want a table that lives outside all the time but use your kitchen or dining chairs with it that can be brought out of the house for use in the garden when required. Also, a cheap folding table with a cloth on it can be put next to your garden dining table when you need to accommodate more visitors.
In a similar vein, cushions are always a dilemma in the garden. Very few (I might even boldly say no) cushions can be left out through the winter or in the rain. You do get outdoor fabrics and outdoor cushions that are more weather-proof than your average indoor soft furnishing, but none of them are fans of the British climate and you can end up having to store a sizable volume of cushions if you have more than a small amount of outside dining chairs and sofas that need some padding to make them comfortable. It is worth thinking about not only where these will live when they are not in use but even better, which cushions you have indoors that you would be prepared to use outside when the weather is kind.
It feels like there is quite a lot to think about, doesn’t it? The good news is that a very good way of working out what is needed is to actually sit out and eat out in the garden. You will soon find out the pleasures and problems, which is an excellent place to start with the design work.
And there are things you can do straight away to make your garden more inviting. It may be just me, but I think fairy lights bring immediate joy to most outside spaces and I would also add as many candles as is sensible (in high-sided jars so they don’t blow out or set fire anything – that really does happen). I think a big tray is useful for moving stuff in and out, garden glasses and plates if you are really not prepared to use your everyday crockery in the garden and jolly, good quality paper napkins or better still cloth ones if you can bear the laundry.
Pick out a few indoor cushions that you don’t mind using (or are ready to be replaced should something gardeny happen to them) and a lovely tablecloth (preferably not oilcloth, but one that can cope with the odd spillage).
The key is to remember that outdoor living is and should be more relaxed so no one expects to be on best behaviour. However a comfortable, well-appointed and inviting space to eat, chat, relax and snooze will draw you into the garden more often which feels exactly the right place to be when the British summer gets its act together.
Find out more about Angel + Blume Interior Design at angelandblume.com
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Cate Burren