Making Outdoor Furniture Reflect Your Personal Style: I have seen some atrocious outdoor furniture that will haunt me till my last breath. Most of it has been in the outdoor furniture section of major online magazines. Now, I know that they all meant well, as the topic is usually to make your garden furniture shine with character.
And I love a do-it-yourself project but is anyone really going to glue a grass skirt onto a plastic chair and think it reminds them of a tropical getaway, no.
Nor is anyone going to drape expensive fabric over a wooden chair so that it gathers on the ground below and believe that it looks cosmopolitan. Oh, I could go on and on about how ineffectual it is to do so many of the things proposed.
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However, I will spare you because we all know that there is plenty of brightly coloured outdoor furniture readily available at low costs. If you feel inspired to put your spin on things, then make some pillows, or cushions to do so.
But please stay away from spray paint and glue guns when working with silly plastic chairs, they are one of the few things you should concede are what they are, and cannot be transformed into something more.
Table of Contents
Trends
Selecting your style of furniture is a lot like choosing your type of jewelry. Just like there are variations in precious metals, there are distinguishing qualities in furniture materials too. As people place metals at different levels in the hierarchy, they too place different materials at different levels in the hierarchy.
Of course, the price often has a lot to do with the placement of both, but personal taste and fashion guidelines come into play regularly also.
So, whereas yellow gold held a place in the limelight for decades, white gold took away the lead. Still, while it might not be the forerunner at this moment in time, yellow gold holds a high placement. Similarly, rattan, wicker, and teak go through trends in the outdoor furniture realm.
Thus, it is important to keep apprised of the cycle in which your potential selection falls in order to get it just right.
Colours
Inspiration in a garden is easy to come by and should be taken advantage of in my opinion. While some designers prefer to use mundane neutral shades for seating and tables, I disagree wholeheartedly with this approach. Instead, draw from the colors you have selected for the blossoms in your outdoor area.
Whereas you may never dare to decorate with red and yellow inside your home, all restrictions are out the window when working out of doors. It is the perfect space to broaden your horizons and get brazen. The torch lilies you have growing will show you how to be audacious, and the coreopsis lead by example too.
Nothing could be simpler than copying the beautiful shades that come naturally to what grows in your garden. The pairings have been made, and the electrifying duos should be celebrated in the furniture you put in that environment.
Price
In my years of working with gardeners, I have found that there are two types. The ones that spring for expensive workspace tables, and the ones that wing it with a small, or no budget at all. It neither identifies the more or less committed gardeners nor does it always coordinate with those with more money.
Those who furnish to impress, go for things like oversized cedar potting benches, matching framed chalkboards, and coordinating tool holders. They will have spent several hundred dollars or pounds on their gorgeous garden workshop furniture.
This does often make a statement that implies the gardener is very serious about their outdoor work, but it is not always so.
And those in the other camp will have rigged unused pieces of household furniture, or been inventive with articles that they have found at market sales. But, you need not belong to one or the other groups, you can be in the middle if you do the following.
Attach a sheet of brightly painted lattice to the wall of your work area to hang your tools, and paint the frame of an otherwise unimpressive chalkboard to match or coordinate.
Then, get yourself one of those fairly inexpensive rectangular plastic outdoor garden tables and cover it with an adorable oilcloth with dimensions that will conceal every inch of the table. and in a pattern with colors that complement those of the lattice and board frame.
Materials
Something that you will find to be extremely useful when deciding upon outdoor furniture is which materials are most resilient. Without this information, you could be looking at more upkeep than you are willing to commit to, or replacements sooner than you ever imagined. Here is a summary of what you need to know to make a good selection.
Wrought iron has been substantially improved, and now comes with undercoating and powder coating finishes. This has eliminated the bad habit it previously had of chipping. Aluminum is rustproof, so no worries there, and teak will fade from its brown tone to a grey one, but will seemingly last forever.
Now, as for wicker, as long as you specify that it is outdoor wicker, it will be made of a combo of resin material and actual wicker so it should endure quite a bit.
Finally, for fabrics, the easiest thing to grasp is that acrylic fabrics are very resilient, and are stuffed with polyester, which drains well, so these are a dynamite choice. Aside from this, you can decide on looks alone.
Popularity
Ever wonder what the most popular choice of outdoor furniture is? Well, currently it is cast and casual aluminum. Considering it is strong, lightweight, and rust-proof, what’s not to love? Hence, it is what the masses are enamored with, and the experts understand why perfectly.
Now you are probably questioning what the difference between cast and casual aluminum is. Simply put, casual is hollow and the cast is not.
As for the tried and true selection of choice, why it is wrought iron. The older models of yesteryear were known for chipping paint, and the yearly maintenance of the same.
Today, wrought iron furniture is available with undercoating and powder-coated finishes, which make all the difference in the world. Both aluminum and wrought iron are frequently paired with colorful fabric cushions. These come in acrylic fabrics that resist fading and rotting.
And The Fairest Garden Furniture Provider of Them All Is
I am often asked by clients as to whether or not I think it is best to buy garden furniture from a company that specializes in that alone or from organizations that cast a wider net. Ah, that is a tough one to answer. And admittedly, at different junctions of my career, my answers have undoubtedly varied. But here and now, what do I think? Well, it is as follows:
I am no longer a fan of the superstores, as they have crushed the little guy so very many times, whether it be in the furniture, book, or grocery business. Having that out in the open, I must concede that they are able to give better prices on average. They can make up packages that leave customers benefiting greatly, and they often have amazing return policies.
Now, I am not just brushing off my response, and saying that it all comes down to ethical responsibility. For I have made tons of purchases from both mom and pop, and Home Depot.
The answer I fear dear readers is that you have to do a balancing act and that my fine friends involve the despised leg work. In my opinion, there is no blanket answer to this question, it is dependent on too many variables.
🏡 Check out what garden lovers have purchased the most! 🏡
