Garden furniture to love – 4 best looks

How do you choose garden furniture?

Do you drift in to a garden centre and look for the offers? Or is your garden furniture an important part of your design?

Ours has accumulated over the years. It’s all beginning to fall apart, so I’ve been keeping a watch on garden furniture trends when visiting gardens and shows.

There seem to be four key directions – modern, classic, vintage and upcycled. Here’s what they mean for your garden.

Modern garden furniture

If you like contemporary style, you need chunky, large pieces in neutral colours, such as black, brown, beige or white. Then add a strong splash of vibrant colour. Look for giant sun loungers and huge teak tables that seat 10 or more. This style works particularly well in small city gardens. Interior designers often say that you need one or two large items in a small space to make it seem more opulent.

Paola Lenti furniture in a garden designed by Charlotte Rowe. The strong shapes and colours work well in a city garden.

Classic style

Classic style is comfortable. It includes teak tables, rattan armchairs and umbrella parasols. We’ve had a plain teak table for 10+ years and it will last several more. We also have a traditional cream parasol that fits through a hole in the centre of the table. This is beginning to show signs of wear after 5 years.

This comfortable teak bench has lasted 13 years. There’s no sign of it deteriorating.

We will have to replace the parasol soon. I will be making a bid for a ‘banana’ style parasol (see the listing below). This is on a stand placed to one side of the table or sun lounger. When the parasol is down, it is out of the way of the table. When a standard central parasol is folded, it takes up space on the table top. The ‘banana’ parasols are also more flexible – you can adjust them as the sun moves. The more expensive ones are fully adjustable in every direction. The cheaper ones have limited flexibility. I’ve picked two popular models for the listing below.

The vintage look

The vintage look is perennially charming. Think tin cafe tables, wrought iron benches and old garden tools and planters. One of the fun things about this look is that it’s easy to ring the changes by painting the chairs, tables and benches. I have painted our chairs in Hardwick White by Farrow & Ball, matching them to the garden door, but I am thinking of renovating it all by picking another colour (maybe a really dark one, this time?)

We painted four French garden chairs and a sewing machine table base in Hardwick White by Farrow & Ball.

Upcycled chic…

You may think that ‘vintage’ and ‘upcycled’ is the same, but it is a little different. Upcycled means adapting something to a new use. That means using indoor chairs (and even sofas) outside, or turning pallets into garden tables.

Don’t throw your old sofa away. If you’ve got a covered pergola, give the sofa a last season outside, covered in throws. Eventually the wind and rain will get it, but in the meantime you can enjoy a bit of Bohemian garden comfort. Or look in junk shops and markets for mid-century modern chairs in plastics. They’ll withstand life outside and will add character to your garden.

How to find the best garden furniture to buy

I’ve been looking through Amazon to find good garden furniture to buy. After many hours of scrolling up and down the page, I have picked out the brands that got the highest number of 4* and 5* customer reviews. As I am an Amazon affiliate, you can link through to Amazon to buy the furniture. If you do, I may get a small fee but it doesn’t affect the price you pay.

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from The Middle-Sized Garden http://www.themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk/3-best-garden-furniture-looks-summer/