The ‘Garden Living Room’ Trend Is Everywhere – Here’s How To Recreate It
From sofas layered with statement cushions to coffee tables piled with chilled rosé and books, the ‘garden living room’ is one of our favourite exterior living trends. It’s all about bringing the warmth and personality of your indoor space outside with durable rugs, outdoor mirrors, and comfortable seating that withstands the elements. Ready to transform your patio or deck into a stylish and cosy extension of your home? Here’s how to make it work…
After years of bringing the outdoors in – with houseplants, palm-print wallpapers, and a jungle of succulents – it’s time to flip the trend on its head.
The desire to make our outdoor spaces feel like a cosy, open-air living room has never been greater. Think garden coffee tables, plush seating, and terraces that look like they’ve been plucked straight from the White Isle. With summer holidays, Bank Holidays, and more warm weather (we hope!) on the horizon, now is the perfect time to prep your balcony, garden, or patio for lazy lunches and endless jugs of Pimm’s.
It’s all about creating garden setups made for lazy lunches and endless jugs of Pimm’s.
We’ve curated the best inspiration from our favourite Instagram accounts and searched the web to bring you the pieces you need, for all budgets, to transform your space into a little slice of heaven, no matter how big or small.
If you’re lucky enough to have a large outdoor area and a good budget to invest, the Business & Pleasure scallop-edged Daisy dining table should be at the top of your wish list. Designed to seat four, it’s perfect for intimate al fresco dinners or garden sundowners. In fact, it’s so beautiful you’d be tempted to use it inside the house as a dining table, too. Top it with coloured glasses, raffia dinnerware, and plenty of crisp table linens, just as you would a regular dining table, to create a truly special setting.
If your space is a little more modest but you still want to be the ultimate host this summer, the brand’s vintage-inspired bar cart is an absolute game-changer. It has all the space you need to mix the perfect negroni or margarita, but its genius lies in the details – it even comes with a hole to feed through a parasol for some much-needed shade. It’s a stylish and functional piece that shows you’ve thought of everything. Just so good.
Here’s how to make your garden feel like a living room…
Even urban spaces can get the stately home treatment, and there’s no one more qualified to help you achieve it than interiors queen, Mrs. Alice. Her eponymous brand has teamed up with Ruggable to create a line of durable, machine-washable outdoor rugs that will make your garden feel like a Grade II listed pile… almost. The fact that they’re a breeze to clean in the washing machine is just genius.
But a grand look isn’t the only option. Even if your outdoor area is tiny, you can achieve a completely different feel with a handful of tactile, bohemian-style accessories. Look to the home departments at Anthropologie, Oliver Bonas, and H&M for affordable trays, floor cushions, throws, and pouffes that will create a cosy and inviting space, no matter how small.
The queen of interiors has teamed up with Ruggable to create a line of durable rugs made for the outdoors.
And finally, for the ultimate luxury statement, look no further than one of our favourite interiors brands, Buchanan Studio. Known for their iconic puffy striped sofas, they’ve just added an al fresco line to their offering. Now you can get those same brilliant designs, but in durable materials made specifically for the great outdoors. This isn’t just a simple fabric change; they’ve thought of everything, with marine-grade timber, hidden drainage channels, and waterproof technical fabrics. It’s a seriously clever investment that proves outdoor comfort can be just as stylish and sophisticated as the indoor kind.
The iconic Buchanan Stuido sofas but made for the great outdoors.
The products on this page have been selected by our editorial team, however, The Handbook may make a small commission on some products purchased through affiliate links.
