From Garden Furniture To Al Fresco Dining: How To Upgrade Your Outdoor Living
As we enter the autumn season and the warmth of the summer fades away into the colder, darker months, outdoor living might seem unfeasible. However, there are many inventive and stylish upgrades available to your patio and garden that can make outdoor living a luxury that doesn’t have to be exclusively enjoyed in the summer. With these improvements, an outdoor living area can be as comfortable as a living room and have as much functionality as the kitchen – opening up imaginative and exciting social ideas for friends and family in the process.
Read on to discover inventive ways you can rejuvenate your outdoor living space and how Woburn Sands Emporium can help.
Furniture
The first step in upgrading your outdoor living setup begins with acquiring good quality furniture for your garden. Lounge and sofa sets can make an outdoor area comfortable and feel homely. Whatever the shape or size of your patio and garden there are plenty of outdoor seating options available to fit in effectively, from egg chairs to corner sofas to swing sets. When deciding which furniture to purchase, remember to consider functionality and ask yourself what activities you plan to do. If you enjoy having a nap in the fresh air, a reclining chair might be an excellent choice, but if you want to have family game nights a corner sofa will be more suitable.
Even if you prefer a less patio-oriented outdoor living space, a wooden garden bench could be an apt
choice, one that fits in with a more nature-based area of your garden. The same goes for our arches and arbours, garden accessories that can form a tranquil, pastoral walkway and encourage the growth of climbing plants.
Outdoor dining and bistro sets can help establish some fun and exciting Al Fresco eating options, giving your patio or garden area a distinctly European flavour. For families, this dining option can spice up your Friday night dinner and the different environment can encourage a longer, more relaxed evening without anyone wanting to scurry off straight after eating. A new dining set-up with a more aesthetically-inclined table and chairs can also encourage more creative cooking with diverse meals that better suit the newly refreshed outdoor environment.
If you want these garden accessories to last even longer, it might be a good idea to get some outdoor furniture covers for the table, chairs and sofas, just to ensure it is maintained over a long period of time, making you able to enjoy your outdoor living space for years to come.
Cooking
But it isn’t just an outdoor dining set that can refresh your food options, there are cooking tools that can be a catalyst for exciting meals which can even be incorporated into larger social events.
A gas barbeque can help make a delicious feast for any number of people, with the device boasting incredibly effective ease of use – you’ll be grilling sausages in under 10 minutes. Gas BBQs lack the messiness of charcoal barbecues, and food is cooked speedily with direct and consistent heat, as well as accurate temperature control. These qualities make the gas barbecue ideal for large gatherings with family and friends, boosting an outdoor living option into a creative social idea that everyone can enjoy.
A pizza oven is another excellent outdoor cooking option, having the ability to make mouth-watering, doughy Neapolitan pizzas with ease. If gas-powered, the temperature is precise and easily controlled, as well as ensuring the pizza is cooked cleanly without the smokey taste generated by wood-powered pizza ovens. If this outdoor living gadget interests you, consider how exciting a pizza party could be, a social opportunity whereby family and friends make and cook their own pizzas with a variety of different toppings. This can be a potentially great way to interest younger members in some quality family time, by allowing them to be involved in the cooking process by encouraging them to individually customise a pizza to their own specifications. Beyond consistently producing delicious food, a pizza oven can create precious family memories and possibilities to entertain friends also.
Getting some cooking accessories can also be a great addition to the gas barbecue and/or pizza oven. Whilst lighting cubes and cooking grates are essential for all, pizza paddles and cutters both enhance the cooking experience, helping it evolve into a type of outdoor living that is thrilling and rewarding for all.
Heating
You might be reading these suggestions and be shivering slightly at the prospect of milling around a barbecue on a cold, dark autumn evening – but not to worry, there are versatile, practical, and aesthetically-pleasing heating options for your outdoor living space.
A patio heater ensures warmth on colder nights and can make you enjoy the outside as if it is summer. These can be subtle additions that come in a range of shapes, varying from the portable tower heater to the hanging garden heater. Patio heaters don’t have to dominate your patio space and can be ideal when placed near a garden sofa or dining set.
Another fantastic outdoor heating solution is an outdoor firepit, warming your patio and garden in an entertaining manner which encourages conversation and social interaction. Garden fire pits and fire baskets can come in a variety of styles, with this range enabling it to easily fit in with the design of your outdoor living space. Fire Pits also offer exciting outdoor social opportunities, as family gatherings could involve cooking marshmallows on the firepit, whilst with friends you could host a whiskey-tasting session, comfortably warming you on a cold evening. These can be simple and reasonably-priced additions to your outdoor patio or garden and can make a huge difference, helping your household enjoy outdoor living, even on the coldest of days.
Garden Accessories
It could be beneficial to add some aesthetic decoration to complete the rejuvenation of your outdoor living space. Some low-maintenance patio plants will visually compliment the furniture and fill out the patio space, whilst a bird feeder can enliven the outdoor living space and make your garden feel incredibly rustic. With this and some bird seed, you can also engage the young and old members of the household, instilling in them a sense of care and responsibility for the natural world, and making your outdoor living space idyllic in the process.
Another garden accessory which can enliven a garden and patio is some quality outdoor lighting. Some visually appetising garden lighting are lanterns, string lights, and solar lights, each option suiting the design aesthetic of your outdoor living spaces. These garden accessories can make a garden or patio feel homely and bespoke, converting it into a more complete living space.
Party Time
With these outdoor living space improvements, there are limitless opportunities to host social events in your outdoor living space with friends and family. You could host a film night under the stars, all in the comfort of your outdoor lounge set, or have a book club meet on your outdoor egg chairs. Christmas Day could even be spiced up by barbecuing the turkey for the family to enjoy on a dining set. But even if that’s a bit extreme, make sure to have some warming cocktails on Christmas eve, the chill taken off by the firepit and patio heater. The options are limitless, liberated by garden additions which make outdoor living a pleasure.
Woburn Sands Garden Centre
We are an independent garden centre and retail emporium based in Milton Keynes that has been operating for over 50 years. If any of these outdoor living and garden accessories interest you, Woburn Sands Garden Centre is the perfect place to rejuvenate your outdoor space. Our emporium features every garden-based possibility that you can think of, ranging from landscaping materials to gas barbecues and patio heaters. This can inspire you to create an inventive and comfortable outdoor living area, helping you enjoy your garden and even opening up exciting social opportunities for your friends and family. Visit our garden centre – we have a dog-friendly restaurant and even a crazy golf course – or contact us today at 01908 281161 and hello@wsemporium.co.uk.
