Outdoor Furniture

When wanting to buy the very best luxury garden furniture there is a great deal of choice available to you, with many excellent manufacturers offering a plethora of designs. The following questions may help you decide which style and manufacturer you should choose.

Is your property a modern build or a classical building?
If you live in a modern property it would make sense to buy minimalist design furniture with sleek curves and straight lines. If your house has lots of steel and glass, buying luxury garden furniture made of the same materials works best. However, if you live in classically designed property, by the same criteria, classical outdoor furniture is going to compliment the building best. For a classic country house in Upstate New York, Provence, Tuscany or Gloucestershire, luxury garden furniture that looks at home in that environment works so much better.

Should your outdoor furniture compliment your overall interior design scheme or be completely different?
You have spent a great deal of time on your interior design look for your home, would it work best to consider this look outside or have something that is a complete contrast? For instance, if your main internal living area features fabrics in pale blues with ecru scatter cushions, you could have your luxury garden furniture with base cushions in ecru with pale blue scatter cushions, or vice versa, either would compliment the interior. Or you could choose to make your outdoor area completely different by having your luxury garden furniture feature lime green cushions with orange scatters for instance. Each approach has its own merits but by buying luxury garden furniture sets you give yourself the choice to have it made exactly how you want.

How will the furniture interact with your views?
If your luxury garden furniture is going to be on a terrace, patio or pool edge in front of a wonderful vista you need to consider how the furniture will look when you are not actually using it. You can even decide that your luxury garden furniture looks so good that it doesn’t matter if it blocks the view. This will be particularly true of wickerweave as generally it is a solid mass when placed in front of something. Although much outdoor furniture, particularly ones made of metal, have thin profiles that mean you can “look through it” to appreciate the view beyond.

Is your furniture primarily for style or comfort?
This is one of those “time to be honest” questions, is your luxury garden furniture there mostly to be admired or is it for you to luxuriate on in your down time? Many styles of outdoor furniture have high design concept and are beautiful to look at and great to be admired from a distance by your guests. But it would not provide the comfort needed when sitting at the table for a long meal or spending an afternoon lying on one of the loungers. Alternatively, other luxury garden furniture is extremely comfortable, but is not something that you would want to show off to your guests. There are few manufacturers who have managed to combine beauty of design and deep, long lasting comfort.

How is your luxury outdoor furniture going to look on your terrace in the deep mid-winter?
Obviously in many parts of the world this is not a consideration but if you live in Switzerland or Russia for instance this is relevant. All outdoor furniture manufacturers state that their furniture is designed to be left outside all year around. In most cases this is true. But how is that furniture going to look in the rain & snow? What will this weather do to the surface of the furniture? For instance, sometimes on wood it promotes algae growth. How will the furniture stand up to strong winds in exposed locations by the sea? Winter weather makes some outdoor furniture look sad and bleak. There is some luxury garden furniture though that is genuinely impervious to the elements and just makes you think of glorious summer days.

Is your outdoor furniture movable?
As well as being beautiful and comfortable, luxury garden furniture does need to be practical. The most important thing is that it is heavy enough to withstand strong winds, but still be easily moveable when needs be. For instance, your sun lounger needs to be movable, either to follow the sun, or to move out of the sun into the shade. If it is made of steel or heavy wood this can be a problem. Equally, if you suddenly have more guests arriving it is important to be able to easily move chairs across to where you are all sitting.