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!

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!

I accept that these may not strictly class as garden furniture in this picture, but I think these crazy jellyfish-like stools would make a great addition to most modern or contemporary garden. Alright so they’re probably not as comfortable as a deck chair and you almost certainly won’t fall asleep on one, as you might in a hammock – but they certainly are a cool way to share a glass of wine in the evening, or chill out while you throw a ball for the dog.

In my opinion, this kind of garden furniture will either look great, or totally out of place depending on the type of garden you have. Clean-cut modern gardens may well benefit from the addition of contemporary furnishings like these, where traditional gardens may only be marred by their presence. Of course, this is by no means a hard and fast rule; my garden is exceptionally traditional and filled with rustic garden furniture, yet I love the juxtaposition of placing crazy little statues and pieces of art around the place – it makes it like my very own Wonderland. Except much more manly of course… In the name of experimentation, I urge you all to buy something strange and put it somewhere in your garden. Go on, go crazy – you only live once (apparently).