Aluminium Garden FurnitureGarden Furniture Design

[reblogged from wordpress]

  If you have bought some good quality furniture for your garden, then you are going to want to take care of it.  When the summer months are over it will need to be stored for quite a long time before it is time to get it out again.  It is over this period that it can easily become very dirty and possibly even damaged.  But by applying a little bit of thought you can keep it all in tip-top condition. Read the rest of this entry »

[reblogged from familydoctor]

  Lazing around in the back garden is a thoroughly pleasurable experience, but not everyone wants to be sat in the blazing sun.  Sometimes it is just too hot, even if you are the kind of person who likes to get a nice tan.  Besides, we all know that it can be dangerous to spend too much time sunbathing. Read the rest of this entry »

[reblogged from wordpress]

   England is well known for its unpredictable weather conditions, so when we finally get a few nice days, many of us are in a rush to go and sit outdoors.  But before we do we will have to give our garden furniture a good clean.  It’s amazing just how dirty it can get out there, isn’t it?  Soot, mould and creepy-crawlies always seem to be in such very good supply! Read the rest of this entry »

When making landscaping plans for your garden, why not consider working the garden furniture into the plan?

Every year I work with thousands of people who spend huge amounts of money having their garden designed, redesigned, landscaped and altered to make it exactly the way they want it. It often takes months and the results are normally staggering – a properly landscaped garden looks amazing, feel amazing and adds an amazing amount of vaule to a property. Read the rest of this entry »

Although sitting outside at this time of year is probably illegal under the suicide act (if that’s even a real thing), there is increasing amounts of evidence suggesting people who spend more time relaxing in the garden are less likely to suffer from mood disorders and mental illnesses like depression and anxiety. Read the rest of this entry »

I think it’s fair to say most people consider garden furniture to be primarily for use in spring and summer; the times of the year when the weather is nice enough to allow you to sit outside. Or, as is the case in England, nicer than it is in the other times of the year, so we may as well make the best of it! Read the rest of this entry »

Bonfire night approaches and it’s about time too! All year long I wait for the one time when we get to celebrate rebellion and the courage of people who stand up for what they believe in, no matter what grisly fate may befall them. In my opinion, this country could really use a good dose of this old fashioned courage; there’d be no expenses scandal if the MPs knew we might blow them sky high!

Of course, the reason I am reminding you of bonfire night is that many people forget the damage that bonfires can do to their garden furniture. Merely having your garden bench too close to the fire can warp it permanently and dry the wood out awfully. Paint will flake off and the wood can even start to splinter and char! When it comes to plastic furniture, it doesn’t take a genius to realise that hot fires and soft plastic chairs don’t mix…

Another very, very important thing to remember is the effect that bonfires have on aluminium furniture. Although it is fairly resistant to bending and warping, aluminium furniture can get VERY hot if it is too close to a fire! Believe me, few things will ruin your bonfire night quicker than sitting on a burning hot metal garden chair! Be wise; keep the garden furniture far away from the flames…

The garden furniture market made up 67% of the £549,000,000 industry of garden furniture, barbeque and accessories, according to a report from AMA Research. Worth around £366,000,000 (even in this country of diabolic weather), the garden furniture industry continues to boom and, if predictions are correct, it’s going to keep expanding for at least the next 5 years! Let’s hope the weather holds up…

With the market’s value expected to reach a around £700,000,000 by 2015, it is no wonder people are starting to question why exactly the world of patio furnishings continues to grow in a time of economic recession. One potential contributing factor for this increased interest becomes apparent when we consider the history of the market; the last boom in the garden furniture market was about a decade ago – just long ago enough to mean this target audience might be considering replacing their aging furnishings! Combined with the recent surge in the popularity of al fresco dining and the financial advantages to spending weekends at in the garden with a barbeque – it suddenly doesn’t seem so strange that the market is back on the rise!

The impact the boom will have on consumers is hard to tell; although one would assume prices would drop, there has been a definite increase in the demand for high-quality garden furniture over the cheaper kind. This is possibly because people consider it a more long-term investment now holidays are getting harder to afford. So we could see a decrease in the amount of cheap garden furniture available and a rise in high quality and bespoke furnishings…which sounds good to me!
 

Although outdoor furnishings can be put on any kind of patio, or even in the middle of the garden itself, decking makes a lovely addition to most patios, bringing out the best in your garden furnitue. For this reason, I have decided to provide some important pointers for those people considering making their own decking. The best of people – those who do it themselves!

For starters, make sure the frame is perfect – it is the integral part of the decking! Before you build it, figure out which way the boards are going to run so that you can build the main joints of the frame in the opposite direction, for added support and strength. Although frames can be easily built directly onto the patio, many people like to put bricks beneath the decking to add height – probably so they can feel like they are Lords over people without decking…

If you are going to use bricks to boost you decking and self esteem, remember to use enough to support the whole deck – not just the corners! If you want a guideline for how many to use, I’d go with “as many as you possibly can”. A spring in your step is about the last thing you want when carrying cocktails across your new decking!

As a final point – make certain to screw the frame together. I know nails are infinitely manlier, but screws work a lot better and will hold the timber together for years. Did I mention you should be using timber for the decking? No? That’s because it should be obvious.

That’s all for now my dears.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll sometimes find it hard to choose between the classical age and the times we live in now. Normally the classical age wins; but sometimes there are things these modern times offer that are sufficient to draw me away from my Hellenic-inclinations. Garden furniture is one of those things.

My natural choice in garden furniture is to go bold and strong; stone tables with high-backed wooden chairs or marble stools – furniture on which you can feast and hold court! Simple, flat designs that withstand pounding fists and the slamming-down of tankards – that’s the furniture for me!

However, as I get older I am often struck with the simple beauty of many pieces of modern aluminium garden furniture. Gone are the days when metal furnishings were limited to super-shiny angular tables and thin, tube-legged and uncomfortable chairs; modern metal furniture can truly bring an element of class to a garden, without feeling like an unwanted man-made impingement of nature.

By shopping around and doing some research before you buy, you can make sure your furniture compliments your garden rather than intrudes into it.