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Are you sitting comfortably? |
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You can read book after book on garden design, with recommended swathes of swaying flowers & foliage covering page after page, or consult the many weighty tomes that will lead you through the minefield of stone, timber & steel that form the fabric of your garden but you seldom see any real information on one of the most important aspects of your garden. When all is laid, built, planted & finished, & the sun is shining, you stroll out onto your vast new patio with a glass of Zinfandel in one hand & a hefty biography in the other, only to see the discoloured remains of the white plastic chairs that you bought at the local DIY Superstore last summer centre stage, offering little or no style or posterior comfort. On what do you sit to enjoy your new garden, & why didn’t you think of it before now?
Fortunately the large DIY chains are now improving their choice from plastic, cast Aluminium & tropical hardwood, to include several quite reasonably priced ranges of contemporary style furniture, but if you want to stray away from the norm then you need to do some investigation.
The first principal of furniture is that it is of a size to be of use. In a garden belonging to a large family, a table that will seat four is woefully inadequate, whereas a size too large will be welcomed. Always think of your family with two guests & you’ll probably arrive at a table size that is useful to you.
Position is crucial as there is no point in having a seat or table in a position that offers no enticement to sit & enjoy the ambience. Sun (or shade), view, scent, convenience & movement are all conducive to providing a good seating area. If you have properly designed your garden then the patio will be in a position that offers at least two of these features. Seating should offer options, with views back towards the house & ‘secret’ places that offer seclusion amongst planting in addition to the main seating area.
There are quite a few alternate choices available in the furniture market with by far & away the most individual pieces being those that are bespoke creations made specifically for your garden. In one garden I built, the client required a permanent table. As the theme in the garden was driftwood, the logical motif to include was a redwood stump from Natural Driftwood Sculptures – Tel: 01202 578274.This was concreted in & a plank tabletop fixed in place. Note that the stump was positioned to appear as if the prevailing wind sculpted the growth of an existing tree.
A good alternative table finish is stone, with the main problem being finding the size of slab that would provide a good tabletop. A couple of suppliers spring to mind Aviva Stone – 01227 832893 – for polished modern style stone tables or Stone Age - 01524 736988 – to transport you to Middle Earth for your alfresco eating.
In a larger garden, the ever-present table & chairs should be supplemented by extra seating for the larger social occasions. A low wall at a height between 600mm & 700mm will provide good temporary seating if properly capped with a flat surface (Those half rounded brick specials that feature on the top of Victorian walls were not for sitting on let alone balancing a plate full of Chicken Satay). Further out into the garden more informal seating is popular with wooden seats ranging from smoothed logs to the classical Lyre back or Lutyens bench describing the breadth of choice.
It is almost impossible to describe the myriad choices available in the garden furniture palette, but a trawl through the internet using a search engine like Google will turn up about 10,000 sites devoted to supplying the necessary equipment for swinging, lying, or just plain sitting in your garden next summer. I would also suggest visiting one of the ever increasing number of Garden shows next year as the furniture section seems to vie with plants for the most numerous stand award almost every time.
Bearing in mind the time of year, a garden seat can make a good present if you are stuck for something imaginative that someone wouldn’t normally buy themselves, so get looking on the internet for that special gift & the best wishes of the season to all of you.
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