Top Tips For Choosing The Right Luxury Outdoor Furniture

After a particularly cold, wet, and fairly miserable winter, the first flush of spring is the time when many people shake off the lingering cold of the previous year and look towards an exciting, enjoyable summer ahead.

For some homeowners, this means preparing their patio and garden area for summer dinners, parties, lounging and general entertaining, which can sometimes mean exploring bespoke furniture options to find the best items for their outdoor space.

Exterior design can be quite tricky, even if you have a clear interior design philosophy, as a lot of the principles that work indoors do not necessarily translate to interstitial or outdoor areas, but here are a few tips to point you in the right direction.

Form Follows Function

Because patios and gardens can vary so significantly in size and style, the best first step to designing the space you want is simply to think about what you want to use it for.

If your goal is to entertain, focus your garden around an outdoor dining set and work out from there. If you want to lounge in the sun, there are comfortable outdoor sofas and seats that would be perfect.

Complement Or Contrast?

The biggest question when it comes to the style of outdoor furniture to choose is whether you want it to notably stand out from your interior design style or want to provide a cohesive, uniform style both inside and out.

If you have a more traditional home and want to keep it that way, then a good option is to opt for a material such as bamboo or rattan. These hard-wearing materials are perfectly suited to the somewhat changeable conditions found in a typical British summer and complement a traditional garden well.

By contrast, glass and aluminium furniture with sleeker designs are more perfectly suited to a modernist house.

As long as the exterior design style complements itself, there is a lot of scope for inventive design.

Follow The Two-Thirds Rule

Despite having only the sky above you, space is still at a premium in many gardens, and the best patio designers are quite careful with how they measure their furniture and use their space. Less is often more in living spaces, whether indoor or outdoor.

A good rule of thumb to follow is the two-thirds rule, where at least a third of your available patio space is free to be used to avoid the entire outdoor area looking cluttered and messy.

Do You Have Storage Space?

One of the biggest practical questions to ask when it comes to outdoor furniture is whether you have adequate shelter or storage to move it when the rain begins to fall.

If you do, you may want to choose stackable, foldable or modular pieces that are easy to put away, but if you do not have space, make sure the items are weather-resistant, robust and easy to clean, as they will need to withstand several months each year of wind, snowfall and heavy rain.

There are many wonderful options for both at the right store, but having your practical considerations in mind now will really help.