Garden furniture

Reviews of garden furniture

Furniture design turns on questions of cost, materials, comfort, durability and appearance. Since comfort is a key consideration, it is best to try a chair or bench before buying it.

• Wooden garden furniture ranges from cheap to expensive. Softwood is cheap and if adequately treated can be durable. Hardwood commands respect and the best timbers (teak, iroko, oak) are very durable.
• Cast iron garden furniture is heavy, durable and rather hard to sit on.
• Mild steel garden furniture, often sold as 'wrought iron', is rust-prone but can be treated. It is more accommodating to sit on than cast iron.
• Genuine wrought iron garden furniture (ie beaten with a blacksmith's hammer) is elegant and expensive.
• Cane and rattan garden furniture are light, soft and graceful - but not durable unless carefully treated.
• Aluminium garden furniture is light, durable and less-expensive than one might think
• Plastic garden furniture is cheap and waterproof but lacks durability and has the bad associations of 'plastic'.

The idea of 'furnishing' a garden, as one does a room, is older than one might think. Roman gardens, at Pompeii and elsewhere, had a similar range of furniture to modern gardens: stone tables, stone seats, statues and fountains. Stone 'sofas' were softened with cushions and fabrics. Illustrations of medieval gardens also show noblewomen, and their lovers, on comfortable turf seats. The modern idea of creating an 'outdoor room' and supplying it with 'garden furniture' dates from the influence of modernism on garden design. Designers took up the principle that 'form follows function' and began to ask 'What is the function of a garden?' Outdoor living was an obvious answer and this led to the making of outdoor rooms and to the publication of catalogues offering garden furniture for sale. With the prosperity of the 1980s, a little help from global warming, and a great deal of hard work by manufacturers, the making of outdoor furniture for use in gardens became a sizable industry. Modern garden furniture is made with modern materials: steel, aluminium, glass, plastic and weather-proof timber.

The Garden Furniture & Interiors Co. provides a range of high quality outdoor furniture in various materials from wood (teak, roble and cornis) to stainless steel, weave, rattan, ceramic, stone and aluminium.

Garden Furniture suppliers

SUNS Lifestyle is a luxury retailer of outdoor furniture, contemporary aluminium pergolas and accessories. Our pergolas are European-designed and manufactured to the highest standards to be weatherproof, low maintenance and provide long-lasting enjoyment. View the full range of retractable pergolas, electric pergolas, louvered pergolas and more online and get in touch for questions and to place an order.