As our lives move from a wintry indoors to a hopefully sunny garden, it’s time to consider how we can make our outdoor space special

, Whether or not we’re in for the mythical barbecue summer this year, the fashion for making your garden an extension of your interior looks set to continue.

The past two summers have seen British gardens work harder than ever as an entertaining space, extra living space and in some cases a workspace. The trend for “bringing the inside out” is still going strong post-pandemic: after the first warm weekend in April, the Selfridges website saw a 2,500 per cent jump in searches for “outdoor living”, with similar searches up 53 per cent on Pinterest.

The interior designer Benji Lewis, who lives between a cottage in Berkshire and a house in south-west France, is a practised hand at outdoor living and suggests that when you shop for outdoor furniture, you should consider what you buy in the same way you would if you were furnishing a room.

“Treat your garden as you would any other part of your home and think about what it is that you would like to achieve from your outdoor ‘room’,” he says.

“For example, if you like to enjoy pre-dinner drinks in a slightly formal way, allow for chairs round a coffee table, or a sofa and armchairs in which you can sit in a supported fashion, with a table close at hand for your G&T. If a sprawl is more what you’d like your outdoor furniture to suggest, then go for a hammock suspended between trees, a daybed or a cluster of beanbags.”

Lewis also suggests using garden furniture to divide your outside space and create different areas, as you would inside – for example, separate spaces for drinks, dining and stretching out for a nap.

“A corner sofa can be a handy piece for providing lots of seats, and can also act as an effective room divider, looking very chic if you plan it into your space properly,” he says. He recommends the luxury British brand Coco Wolf, which sells upholstered furniture covered in highly technical materials, many sourced via the marine industry, which can withstand being left outside all year round.

An increasing number of designer brands have released outdoor collections over the past year or so, catering to customer demands for stylish garden furniture, and these have inspired a more comfortable, decorative look at the more accessible end of the price scale too, with brands such as Made.com and Sofa.com releasing designs for garden furniture that look much like pieces you might have in your living room (these are unlikely to be as durable as the designer versions, however, so you’ll need space in the shed to store seat cushions on rainy days and over winter).

The current trend for rattan furniture is one that similarly translates well outdoors, where lightweight, moveable furniture is particularly useful: for a modern take, look for coloured rattan, such as the vintage-style chairs and sofas by Birdie Fortescue, which come in pretty muted shades of pink, blue and green.

Alternatively, for a weekend DIY project, find some second-hand rattan chairs and spray-paint them yourself using an outdoor-appropriate paint such as Rustoleum. Rattan daybeds are currently having a moment – for the ultimate in Riviera chic, interior designer Flora Soames has collaborated with the Houghton Collection on a vintage style wicker lounger with a cushion in her vibrant striped fabric.

Occasional tables are an important consideration in the garden too, according to Lewis: “I’m an outdoor-table nut,” he says. “I like to always have a few of these in my garden so that there’s somewhere to put drinks, set up a space for tea, or arrange a set of potted plants to form an elegant backdrop.”

His advice is to think beyond classic teak and look for vintage marble, zinc or slate-topped tables that add a different texture and character, while also being practical and durable.

Paul Middlemiss, a former buying director at The Conran Shop who has since established Merchant & Found, the UK’s leading vintage furniture and lighting store, says that vintage pieces are often more durable than their modern counterparts, and can improve with age and patina. He recommends the classic French café chair designed in 1934 by Tolix, which comes in a variety of colours and “never goes out of fashion”. “It looks brilliant whether new or vintage,” he adds, “and can be left outside all year, or brought inside over winter to sit around the kitchen table.”

Other vintage pieces he likes for the garden are chairs by the defunct brand Multipl’s – “an iconic part of industrial French history and a competitor to Tolix that did not survive, making it even more collectible and rare” – and the 1950s metal Toledo chair, which was used as a marketing tool and thus often comes stamped with names of French breweries, giving it some extra vintage character.

Outdoor textiles have come on in leaps and bounds in recent years, and are useful for bringing colour and comfort to a garden, especially one with metal or wooden furniture. Even a small, shady courtyard looks instantly more inviting with the addition of blankets, throws and outdoor cushions – which previously tended to feature lurid primary palettes and plasticky fabrics but these days come in soft fabrics and all sorts of colours and patterns.

Similarly, outdoor rugs (which took off as a trend last spring after a particularly tasteful one was spotted beneath the feet of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex during their interview with Oprah Winfrey) have become increasingly widely available, in a variety of styles and colours. They also make a good tool for softening up your outside space and zoning dining or sitting areas – try Kukoon Rugs and Weaver Green.

To finish off a garden look, Middlemiss suggests picking up vintage outdoor accessories to display, in much the same way as you might arrange ornaments in the home: “Accessories such as plant stands, watering cans, cloches and storage containers look brilliant dotted about the garden and add a bit of personality and depth to a scheme, particularly when interspersed with new outdoor furniture.”

Swinging sofas conjure up childhood memories of long summer days when there was little more to do than leaf through a book, while gently rocking. It’s a nostalgic image, which still seems an extremely satisfactory way to spend a sunny afternoon. Could a swinging sofa be the garden must-have we never knew we needed?

ODD (oddlimited.com) has been making its Old Rocker swing seats in very limited runs for nearly 20 years and counts actors and designers (including Helena Bonham Carter and Pearl Lowe) among its clients.

Their old-style aesthetic – brightly-coloured, tent- like, waterproof canvas roof and sides and comfortable cushions in linen and velvet – gives a fairytale effect. “They are a bit of a curiosity,” says the brand’s co-owner, Emerald Brown. “A fully upholstered sofa in the garden – and not only that, it swings.”

A swinging sofa is also an excellent place for a cosy chat, according to Elizabeth Durrant, co-owner of Wilverley (wilverley.com), whose Idler swinging seat – designed to replicate ones sold in 1920s Army & Navy stores – boasts more famous fans and has featured on screen in television programmes such as Poirot.

Sofas at both ODD (where prices start at £3,900) and Wilverley (£2,395) are pricey, but there are budget-friendly options available from garden centres and brands such as Cox & Cox. Despite their country-house connotations, they are far from outdated or stuffy and can be styled up to the nines – Brown likens the appeal of “dressing your rocker” to that of tablesetting. And when it comes to cushions and fabric choices, “more is more”.

The garden bar may have been the runaway trend of the past two summers, but the outdoor kitchen is now hot on its heels.

Until recently, a full built-in outdoor kitchen was the preserve of the celebrity home, not least because of the expense – one that may not be justified by the amount of use it’s likely to get over a typical British summer. For example, an outdoor grill station from luxury brand Oxenwood, which comes with oak units, Belgian bluestone worktops and a Wolf grill, comes with a starting price of over £25,000.

Duncan Aird, founder of the specialist company Outdoor Kitchen Expert, meanwhile, suggests that £45,000 is a “solid starting point” for a full outdoor kitchen.

To make a functional and long-lasting alfresco kitchen that will be used year after year requires proper planning in terms of where to put it, and how much space it will need, says Aird. “The space will require water, drainage, power, lighting and most likely internet connectivity, so creating an outdoor kitchen that is connected to the main house may prove easier and more cost-effective than building a ‘satellite’ that isn’t in such close proximity,” he says.

“The space available will also dictate what you can include. An area as small as 10 square metres [about 110 sq ft] can accommodate an entry-level outdoor kitchen, but those looking for an entire outdoor living area, incorporating a bar, seating, canopy, firepit and perhaps a hot tub, may need 15 sq m or more of space.”

For those who lack the budget or space for this kind of commitment, however, there are ways to create a stylish and functional outdoor cooking area without installing a permanent structure.

Interior designer Benji Lewis suggests investing in free-standing storage for tableware, such as an aluminium sideboard by Kettler (£749, John Lewis), to save you “carting cutlery, crockery and glasses from the house to your outdoor ‘room’” (it can also double as an outdoor bar for parties). Cox & Cox has also launched an outdoor kitchen range – with freestanding, stone-topped acacia-wood units (from £325) that wouldn’t look out of place in a country kitchen and provide plenty of space for both storage and food-and-drink prep.

When it comes to the cooking, Aldi’s best-selling Kamado barbecue – a budget version of the Big Green Egg ceramic charcoal grill, which can set you back £795-£1,795 – is back in stock at £399.99, and gets five-star reviews.

Several brands have also launched their own versions of the hit (and often sold-out) Ooni pizza oven, including new versions from Cox & Cox (from £256.75) and The Cotswold Company (£385).

Eden outdoor cushion, £88, Jonathan Adler; Aztec indoor/outdoor rug, from £19.95, Kukoon Rugs; Sarah Campbell citronella candle, £36, Anthropologie; Rainbow stripe blanket, £46, The British Blanket Co; Aluminium sideboard, £749, Kettler; Kamado ceramic egg barbecue, £399.99 Aldi; Pink woven rattan chair, £450, Birdie Fortescue; Solar mesh pendant light, £24, Ella James; Amaya outdoor coffee table, £739, Soho Home; 

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