By Matthew Pericard
With the internet growing from strength to strength it’s easy to find yourself swamped with choice. Not that that’s a bad thing mind but it can put doubts in your head as to which product is better than another; is it that the price is right or should I spend a little more for something of better quality. When it comes to garden furniture plastic is out and wood or metal are in this summer. And with the warmer months drawing closer, we hope, many of us are desperate to not miss out on the sun. So there’s no time like the present to throwing out the old and upgrade with a sparkling new garden furniture set. Now, wooden garden furniture may look more traditional but is its metal counterpart more up your street? Do you want garden furniture that is easy to maintain or something that can be stored away tidily in the shed? How much do you want to impress your friends with its look or do you simply want sit back in comfort and bask in the sun?Wooden and metal garden furniture are sold in many guises. Metal garden sets for instance are moulded eloquently from cast iron and others are framed in aluminium with textile seating and either a plastic veneered table top or glass top. Broadly speaking metal outdoor furniture can be considered more hip and trendy, especially with interest in multi-material garden furniture alluded to above. This makes metal sets suited to patios and terraces due to their clean, angular edges. If your tastes are a little more conservative and your garden setting befits a scene out of the British Heritage’s website then wooden garden furniture fits the bill, evocative of the natural surroundings with its slightly uneven surfaces and knotted texture. In a practical sense wooden garden furniture generally requires annual treatment using teak oil and such like, maintaining appearance and preventing cracking. When all is said and done metal garden furniture is still liable to rusting so all it boils down to really is personal choice.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Sunday, August 3, 2008
A Guide to Colorful Garden Furniture
By Archie McIntyre
For most of us our garden is our refuge. The open blue sky and plant shapes, smells and colors are elemental.But when it comes to garden furniture, many people choose their garden furniture without thinking about how the furniture’s colors interact with the environment they will be placed in. High-quality garden furniture can sometimes be found in a variety of colors, or you can paint your furniture yourself. My customers often ask me how to integrate colorful furniture into their garden or landscape. They want to know about color combinations, how to use furniture as a color accent, how to draw your eye with color, or how to create a serene place with color. It’s a part of my business I really enjoy.Consider these possibilities for using color with your garden furniture:Contrasting colors: When a garden design calls for vibrant color I advise contrasting colors such as blue or purple near yellows; or orange or orange-red against emerald or lime greens. Even black furniture (say against a hedge of yellow forsythia) can create a dynamic contrast. Imagine the impact of periwinkle blue Adirondack chairs against a backdrop bed of bright yellow daylilies.Harmonious colors: If you don’t want to challenge the eye or you want a garden space to look larger, choose your garden furniture in colors that match their surroundings. Solid wooden furniture with a rich coat of paint will make every inch of the garden feel luxurious. A bright lime green in a dark, shady spot adds light and an airy quality.Furniture that matches a garden accent: Think about what you want to highlight. A customer in New England placed a bright tangerine garden bench alongside her koi pond. In this case, the bright bench matched her favorite garden accent, her orange fish.Serene colors: A customer in the pacific Northwest selected an Adirondack chair painted in white, for her moon garden that was planted with all white flowers. She tells me she lounges in her chair, listening to the night noises under the full moon, her white flowers glowing in the moonlight. Color can bring your house and garden together: A colorful piece of furniture on a front porch can match your shutters and tie colors in your house to colors in your landscape. Trying matching your house’s trim color to provide a unified, coordinated look, or choose a contrasting color to add interest. One customer in the Boston suburbs placed her two seat bench in a pale Daffodil yellow to complement her slate blue porch. With spring flowers it was a welcome light color; in the Fall it set off chrysanthemums and traditional gourds.Colorful furniture with a purpose: If there’s lots of shade in your yard, chose a vibrant color – colors in shade look great. If you want to draw your eye across the landscape chose a bold punctuation color. If there is dominant color in the garden or house, chose a color that either compliments or contrasts. For best results, keep the color scheme in the garden simple by sticking to one, two or three colors. Avoid a shotgun approach with one color here and one color there. A simple design that takes your house color into account gives a planned, unified look to the garden and your home.Colors for all the seasons: If you don’t have a green thumb and you have a hard time producing harmonious color in your garden, colorful furniture may be the answer. And think about winter too. After the May flowers have passed and the vibrant colors have vanished, a well placed piece of colorful furniture can break up the steady diet of gray and add a bit of brightness to the landscape.How do I make up my mind? Many gardeners can have a hard time deciding on right color, given the myriad of choices and combinations available. Check to see if your furniture manufacturer can give you pictures of the product you are purchasing in several different colors, or use paint swatches, and bring them with you to the garden to see how they match or contrast the natural colors there.There are many books available today providing excellent guidance on color in the garden. Concepts that apply to juxtaposing plant colors often make sense when considering the use of color in furnishing your outdoor space. Given the joys of gardening and all the hard work involved, I always recommend you top off your labors with handsomely crafted, durable wooden furniture in a color that rewards your view, let alone the brown dirt under your nails.
For most of us our garden is our refuge. The open blue sky and plant shapes, smells and colors are elemental.But when it comes to garden furniture, many people choose their garden furniture without thinking about how the furniture’s colors interact with the environment they will be placed in. High-quality garden furniture can sometimes be found in a variety of colors, or you can paint your furniture yourself. My customers often ask me how to integrate colorful furniture into their garden or landscape. They want to know about color combinations, how to use furniture as a color accent, how to draw your eye with color, or how to create a serene place with color. It’s a part of my business I really enjoy.Consider these possibilities for using color with your garden furniture:Contrasting colors: When a garden design calls for vibrant color I advise contrasting colors such as blue or purple near yellows; or orange or orange-red against emerald or lime greens. Even black furniture (say against a hedge of yellow forsythia) can create a dynamic contrast. Imagine the impact of periwinkle blue Adirondack chairs against a backdrop bed of bright yellow daylilies.Harmonious colors: If you don’t want to challenge the eye or you want a garden space to look larger, choose your garden furniture in colors that match their surroundings. Solid wooden furniture with a rich coat of paint will make every inch of the garden feel luxurious. A bright lime green in a dark, shady spot adds light and an airy quality.Furniture that matches a garden accent: Think about what you want to highlight. A customer in New England placed a bright tangerine garden bench alongside her koi pond. In this case, the bright bench matched her favorite garden accent, her orange fish.Serene colors: A customer in the pacific Northwest selected an Adirondack chair painted in white, for her moon garden that was planted with all white flowers. She tells me she lounges in her chair, listening to the night noises under the full moon, her white flowers glowing in the moonlight. Color can bring your house and garden together: A colorful piece of furniture on a front porch can match your shutters and tie colors in your house to colors in your landscape. Trying matching your house’s trim color to provide a unified, coordinated look, or choose a contrasting color to add interest. One customer in the Boston suburbs placed her two seat bench in a pale Daffodil yellow to complement her slate blue porch. With spring flowers it was a welcome light color; in the Fall it set off chrysanthemums and traditional gourds.Colorful furniture with a purpose: If there’s lots of shade in your yard, chose a vibrant color – colors in shade look great. If you want to draw your eye across the landscape chose a bold punctuation color. If there is dominant color in the garden or house, chose a color that either compliments or contrasts. For best results, keep the color scheme in the garden simple by sticking to one, two or three colors. Avoid a shotgun approach with one color here and one color there. A simple design that takes your house color into account gives a planned, unified look to the garden and your home.Colors for all the seasons: If you don’t have a green thumb and you have a hard time producing harmonious color in your garden, colorful furniture may be the answer. And think about winter too. After the May flowers have passed and the vibrant colors have vanished, a well placed piece of colorful furniture can break up the steady diet of gray and add a bit of brightness to the landscape.How do I make up my mind? Many gardeners can have a hard time deciding on right color, given the myriad of choices and combinations available. Check to see if your furniture manufacturer can give you pictures of the product you are purchasing in several different colors, or use paint swatches, and bring them with you to the garden to see how they match or contrast the natural colors there.There are many books available today providing excellent guidance on color in the garden. Concepts that apply to juxtaposing plant colors often make sense when considering the use of color in furnishing your outdoor space. Given the joys of gardening and all the hard work involved, I always recommend you top off your labors with handsomely crafted, durable wooden furniture in a color that rewards your view, let alone the brown dirt under your nails.
Friday, July 18, 2008
A Guide To Garden Furniture
By Sharron Nixon
The general market for garden furniture is dominated by imports of finished and semi-assembled furniture sold mainly by major DIY and furniture outlets. Such garden furniture is decorative and very durable. There are many different types of cheap garden furniture including hardwood, teak, metal, cast iron and even sets that come with glass tables.The French and German markets are two of the most significant in Europe for garden furniture, and both have shown steady growth over recent years. The fashion for dining or taking tea alfresco traveled easily to America, where garden furniture became a fixture of the landscape, just as it had in England. The purchase of teak garden furniture is a true investment in value. Teak is an excellent choice for outdoor furniture as the wood ages beautifully and will give you outdoor living pleasure and years of enjoyment. Teak is an extremely dense-grained wood and is very resistant to rot, warping, shrinkage and swelling which makes it ideal for outdoor patio and garden furniture. You'd be best to choose your style of teak furniture carefully as your outdoor teak furniture will be around for many years. Most teak furniture owners will leave their teak furniture outside all year long as there is no reason not to, such is its resilience.Indonesian teak is considered by many teak furniture manufacturers to be the highest quality of teak wood available in the world today. Teak furniture is generally all made with mortise and tendon joinery. This is a superior method of construction which results in more solid and durable pieces of furniture. Most manufacturers will also use solid brass castings, screws and bolts in the construction of their furniture, which adds that touch of class.The highest quality teak furniture will also be fully machine made. Fully machine made teak garden furniture guarantees the owner will have more uniformity and a more perfectly finished product. Enjoy garden furniture that is solidly built, needs little maintenance, and will go on giving pleasure in your garden year after year.When choosing your garden furniture, keep in mind the geographic location that you live in. If your are is prone to extremes of temperature, you will need to ensure your purchase will withstand these extremes.An example of this is, where your summer temperatures reach very high levels, you may want to think twice about purchasing metallic garden furniture. There have been some nasty burns primarily caused through the hot sun on metal garden furniture.If you have decided on wood furniture, again bear in mind the temperatures that the furniture will be exposed to. You will need a lot more resilience to extremes of temperature than if you live in a more temperate climate.Keep in mind also what the primary use of the garden furniture will be. If you are wanting to dine outdoors, for example, you may want to look at a design that incorporates a lazy susan, or revolving center. This makes the outdoor dining experience a lot more pleasurable, especially if your table is large.If you are all out entertainers, make sure your garden furniture is either equipped with plenty of seating, or alternatively at a later date you could add individual pieces to it. Extra chairs, footstools, loungers and the like are often part of a larger set of which the basic setting is your first purchase.Also, beware of glass tables. If you are interested in a glass table, make sure you also purchase an umbrella that will cover the circumference of the table. This is mainly to avoid the problem of glare from the sun.It does not matter what you choose, the age old adage of "you get what you pay for" applies equally to garden furniture. If you are wanting something to stand the test of time and climate, you will end up paying accordingly. Once again, decide the purpose of use for the garden furniture, and you will not be disappointed.
The general market for garden furniture is dominated by imports of finished and semi-assembled furniture sold mainly by major DIY and furniture outlets. Such garden furniture is decorative and very durable. There are many different types of cheap garden furniture including hardwood, teak, metal, cast iron and even sets that come with glass tables.The French and German markets are two of the most significant in Europe for garden furniture, and both have shown steady growth over recent years. The fashion for dining or taking tea alfresco traveled easily to America, where garden furniture became a fixture of the landscape, just as it had in England. The purchase of teak garden furniture is a true investment in value. Teak is an excellent choice for outdoor furniture as the wood ages beautifully and will give you outdoor living pleasure and years of enjoyment. Teak is an extremely dense-grained wood and is very resistant to rot, warping, shrinkage and swelling which makes it ideal for outdoor patio and garden furniture. You'd be best to choose your style of teak furniture carefully as your outdoor teak furniture will be around for many years. Most teak furniture owners will leave their teak furniture outside all year long as there is no reason not to, such is its resilience.Indonesian teak is considered by many teak furniture manufacturers to be the highest quality of teak wood available in the world today. Teak furniture is generally all made with mortise and tendon joinery. This is a superior method of construction which results in more solid and durable pieces of furniture. Most manufacturers will also use solid brass castings, screws and bolts in the construction of their furniture, which adds that touch of class.The highest quality teak furniture will also be fully machine made. Fully machine made teak garden furniture guarantees the owner will have more uniformity and a more perfectly finished product. Enjoy garden furniture that is solidly built, needs little maintenance, and will go on giving pleasure in your garden year after year.When choosing your garden furniture, keep in mind the geographic location that you live in. If your are is prone to extremes of temperature, you will need to ensure your purchase will withstand these extremes.An example of this is, where your summer temperatures reach very high levels, you may want to think twice about purchasing metallic garden furniture. There have been some nasty burns primarily caused through the hot sun on metal garden furniture.If you have decided on wood furniture, again bear in mind the temperatures that the furniture will be exposed to. You will need a lot more resilience to extremes of temperature than if you live in a more temperate climate.Keep in mind also what the primary use of the garden furniture will be. If you are wanting to dine outdoors, for example, you may want to look at a design that incorporates a lazy susan, or revolving center. This makes the outdoor dining experience a lot more pleasurable, especially if your table is large.If you are all out entertainers, make sure your garden furniture is either equipped with plenty of seating, or alternatively at a later date you could add individual pieces to it. Extra chairs, footstools, loungers and the like are often part of a larger set of which the basic setting is your first purchase.Also, beware of glass tables. If you are interested in a glass table, make sure you also purchase an umbrella that will cover the circumference of the table. This is mainly to avoid the problem of glare from the sun.It does not matter what you choose, the age old adage of "you get what you pay for" applies equally to garden furniture. If you are wanting something to stand the test of time and climate, you will end up paying accordingly. Once again, decide the purpose of use for the garden furniture, and you will not be disappointed.
Choosing The Best Garden Furniture
By Clyde Lee Dennis
Garden furniture, also called patio furniture, is a type of furniture designed for outdoor use. Garden furniture is currently a trend item as the terrace and garden gradually become more useful spaces in homes all over the world. Before you purchase any garden furniture it is probably a good idea to do some research. Doing so will really increase your probability of buying garden furniture that is exactly designed for you and which will remain with you long-term.
Despite how pleasurable a garden can be, it is cannot be enjoyed completely if there is no place for guests to sit and admire it's attractiveness. Your garden is a superb place to hang around.
You could start by deciding what type of material your garden furniture should be to best you’re your needs. When choose a material you should consider stability of the furniture over time. Wood is always a fine choice when looking for a sturdy piece of outdoor garden furniture. This type of furniture when compared to other furniture is esthetically satisfying and relaxed but does need a small amount of maintenance.
It's for this reason many prefer the hard plastic variety of outdoor garden furniture. This type requires very little maintenance and even care as it is largely unaffected by the weather. Leaving it completely uncovered, or extreme cold and hot temperature changes don't affect it at all. Even rain, ice or burning sunrays don't do much damage to it. Therefore, the majority of people prefer plastic garden furniture.
Plastic garden furniture is comfortable to handle and obviously water-resistant so you can leave it exposed for whole year with no uncertainties about the effects of the usual rainfall.
Aluminum garden furniture is strong another strong and long lasting variety of furniture you might consider. Something to keep in mind with this type though is that oils, suntan lotions and even perspiration will eat away at the outer layers of this kind of furniture. The easy remedy is to wipe it down every so often.
Garden furniture, also called patio furniture, is a type of furniture designed for outdoor use. Garden furniture is currently a trend item as the terrace and garden gradually become more useful spaces in homes all over the world. Before you purchase any garden furniture it is probably a good idea to do some research. Doing so will really increase your probability of buying garden furniture that is exactly designed for you and which will remain with you long-term.
Despite how pleasurable a garden can be, it is cannot be enjoyed completely if there is no place for guests to sit and admire it's attractiveness. Your garden is a superb place to hang around.
You could start by deciding what type of material your garden furniture should be to best you’re your needs. When choose a material you should consider stability of the furniture over time. Wood is always a fine choice when looking for a sturdy piece of outdoor garden furniture. This type of furniture when compared to other furniture is esthetically satisfying and relaxed but does need a small amount of maintenance.
It's for this reason many prefer the hard plastic variety of outdoor garden furniture. This type requires very little maintenance and even care as it is largely unaffected by the weather. Leaving it completely uncovered, or extreme cold and hot temperature changes don't affect it at all. Even rain, ice or burning sunrays don't do much damage to it. Therefore, the majority of people prefer plastic garden furniture.
Plastic garden furniture is comfortable to handle and obviously water-resistant so you can leave it exposed for whole year with no uncertainties about the effects of the usual rainfall.
Aluminum garden furniture is strong another strong and long lasting variety of furniture you might consider. Something to keep in mind with this type though is that oils, suntan lotions and even perspiration will eat away at the outer layers of this kind of furniture. The easy remedy is to wipe it down every so often.
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