[reblogged from bejacksfriend]

Okay, so you want a new table and chairs for your back garden.  Is it going to be made of metal, wood, plastic… or crap?  Yes, junk; rubbish, refuse, waste.  Believe it or not, some people make the ugliest furniture out of the most ridiculous material and shove it in their gardens.  Beer cans, tyres, chicken wire, old ashtrays and even PS1’s (the original ‘brick-style type’ ones)!

Why on Earth would you want to make a main attraction out of a total eyesore???  I’m all for recycling, but isn’t this taking things a little bit too far?  And, to top it all off, many of these Artists in Junk will post endless pictures of their ‘achievements’ on the Net so that everyone can share their excitement.

And me?  Well, call me old-fashioned if you like, but I prefer traditional garden furniture.  After the amount of time I spend making my garden look nice, I am hardly going to ‘set it all off’ with a chair made of used ear buds…

[reblogged from photobucket]

  Most of us would agree that the basic colour scheme of vegetation is green!  But it is possible to choose from several other colours when you are designing your garden.  You can change the whole look of your garden by choosing different coloured plants.  Some people will even stick to one or two certain shades and this can look really nice.

  You can also do a lot to change the look of your garden by opting for a certain type of furniture.  Imagine how it would look with a wooden table and chairs to go with your fencing; or how about a wrought iron theme?  You could fit some new metal gates and buy some iron garden furniture to match!

  There are many different options and you can really go to town on its overall appearance.  There may be plenty of green out there, but this is merely your canvass!  What you choose to put on top is the true artistry of your garden.

[reblogged from inhabitat]

  If you are a dab hand at woodwork, then you will know how just how many things you can make for your home.  Joinery really is a very useful skill to have.  Some items will take a surprisingly short amount of time to make and, if you have enough patience, there are far larger projects to consider.

  You aren’t just restricted to creating items for the interior of your property either; there are plenty of things to make for the garden as well; a shed, a decking area or maybe a pagoda.  You may like the idea of building your own garden furniture.

  The best thing about this is that you do not have to stick to someone else’s plans.  You can make it as traditional as you like or you could come up with a far more unusual design.  What about creating a table in the shape of a heart?  Or perhaps your furniture could have a medieval style?

[reblogged from blaize]

  Most of us love the summertime!  It is so nice to get some jobs done out in the garden without feeling cold.  British summers are well-known for being a bit on the unpredictable side, so it is important to enjoy every minute that you can.  There are just so many different things to enjoy; sunbathing, taking a trip to the beach, gardening and playing Frisbee with the kids. 

  But another highlight of the summer is its wonderful, balmy evenings.  It’s a great time to make use of that traditional garden furniture and to eat your meals al fresco!  Warm summer evenings can be truly magical times because they just feel so incredibly relaxing; birds singing at the bottom of the garden, a few bumblebees finishing off their chores for the day and that beautiful hush before the sun goes to bed. 

  Sitting outside in the cool of the day is a wonderful way of winding down.  A glass of wine, some friends and a little idle chatter can create some lovely summer evenings.

[reblogged from clevelandseniors]

  There is something really relaxing about sitting in one of those garden swing chairs.  Many of us are still big kids at heart and that may be why these are such a common choice when it comes to garden furniture!   Or is there a deeper meaning? 

  A gentle rocking motion is perhaps familiar to us all on a subliminal level, because it reminds us of when we were in the womb.  And many of us will also have been rocked to sleep when we were babies.  It is an incredibly soothing motion that can still make us feel sleepy as adults!  Haven’t you ever sat in one of those garden chairs and found yourself nodding off simply because of the gentle movement? 

  Just how much truth there is in all this is open to debate, but one thing is for certain; swing chairs are really comfortable to sit in and they are a great place to catch forty winks!

A few weeks ago, we asked you for your suggestions for interesting garden furniture. After much deliberation and argument, we have settled on some of our favourites – behold:

The Roundabout Table:

Of all the items in a playground, I can honestly say a roundabout always struck me as about the worst thing you could use for furniture. Apart from slides maybe…and monkey bars…and a seesaws…most other things in fact! However, Will Loman has written to us, declaring this:

“A roundabout with the middle section turned into a table, which is secured to the ground. This way, the seats would revolve around the table, but the food wouldn’t go flying!”
Great idea Will! Many points!

Sheep:

“Sheep spend all their time in fields, not doing anything expect standing around. If you attached flat surfaces to their backs using some kind of belt-system, you could use them for tables and chairs!”

So says Zoe Morley anyway… We don’t encourage animal cruelty here at the Garden Furniture Blog, so we think it may be a little harsh to use sheep as chairs. Tables, on the other hand, we think is a wonderful idea! The sheep would even mow the lawn for you while you sip on your beverage of choice.

We love these ideas, but please keep sending us more!

I would like to take a minute to draw your attention to this clever piece of furniture. Essentially, it is a Monk’s Bench, but it is designed to withstand the elements and stay outside!

For those of you who haven’t heard of a Monk’s Bench before; they are basically wooden benches that have a storage area inside of them – presumably originally for storing monk-ly stuff like Bibles, spare robes and secret stashes of biscuits… Whatever their original purpose however, my dad owned one when I was a youngster and he used it to store all manner of sports equipment in; leading me to conclude that the idea of making a Monk’s Bench into a piece of garden furniture is a fantastic one!

I’m not saying we should all go out and replace our garden sheds with benches, but what I am saying is that extra storage area outside is never something to be sniffed at – especially when it looks as stylish as this! Personally I would use it for storing BBQ-equipment; charcoal, tongs and skewers primarily. Not firelighters though, that’s an accident waiting to happen. Now I think about it, charcoal and a variety of stabbing-equipment might actually be exactly what monks stored in their benches…depends whether you believe the details of the Spanish Inquisition I suppose…

Today’s piece of interesting garden furniture is this charming bench with a waterwheel for a back! I’m not sure quite how comfortable it would be to lean on, but it definitely looks the part. I can imagine it working best in an Alice In Wonderland-esque garden…if one of those even exists!

Wait a second, who am I kidding – of course one exists! This is the 21st Century; Youtube alone is proof that anything that can be imagined does actually exist somewhere in the world! A brief inspection of Google Images has revealed that I was correct; Alice In Wonderland themed gardens do exist:

I would dearly love to photo-shop the bench into this garden to see if it matches the theme. Sadly, however, I have neither the skills nor the time, so you’ll just have to use your imagination I’m afraid. Don’t imagine too hard though; you never know what strange thing will appear on the internet next! In fact, now I think about it, I don’t remember there being any kind of wheel-bench in the book at all…it was just a feeling I had. Suffice to say, this is a lovely bench – Alice in Wonderland garden or not. I particularly like the convex seats; they’re not quite moulded to your bum, but maybe that’s for the best, given the large variation in bums (once again, the internet is proof for this fact).

Anybody here seen Spinal Tap? If not, what have you been doing with your life so far? Quit your job, buy the DVD on your way home and slap it one this evening. You’ll regret it immediately, but your life will already be more book-worthy (and what better aspiration than to have a life that would make a good book?). For those who have seen Spinal Tap, I would like to direct your eyes towards this special guest appearance on the Garden Furniture Blog; ladies and gentlemen, I give you…Stonehenge!

For the benefit of those who don’t know the film, here is Stonehenge in action:

I’m fairly sure this wasn’t designed with Spinal Tap in mind, but by the Gods isn’t it worth twice as much as least once you put the two together in your mind? If it only came with a multitude of bass guitars it might actually sell on eBay as a collector’s item for a hefty sum! Anyway, I’m getting distracted from the point of this post, which is to point out that you can actually make your own pretty-good-looking garden furniture out of rocks, if the recession really has hit you that badly. They will wear away over time but, unless you live for 25 million years, you’re unlikely to notice any change!

Anybody with even the faintest trace of Norse or Saxon blood surely cannot help but feel drawn to this exceptional piece of garden furniture! If you’ve been reading this blog regularly (why wouldn’t you, after all?), you’ll know that I love hardy, old-fashioned garden furniture as well as modern and contemporary designs – making this a particular favourite of mine.

You see, where many people use their gardens for playing with the children or sunbathing, I tend to use mine for feasting. This is easier said than done with normal garden furniture, which is usually too small to accommodate a feast and, on the occasions when I put multiple tables together, it starts to lack that bustling feel. This old-style table, complete with long benches, looks like it has been lifted straight out of Viking drinking hall – the perfect piece of garden furniture to compliment a feasting atmosphere! Behold – it is even extra-supported and has thick legs to accommodate the inevitable table-top dancing and/or fighting! All it really needs is a throne at either end – the feast master must maintain control!