Here at Inside Out Living, we’ve always got our eye on the latest indoor and outdoor furniture trends. Of course, at this point in the calendar, we’re starting to get excited about Summer and are already looking forward to days spent in the garden or on the patio. What can be a little bewildering, however, is just how best to take advantage of the outdoor space you do have. What additions to make? Perhaps you’re on the lookout for that perfect rattan garden furniture set to complement your patio or have some vague colour and texture ideas that aren’t quite coming together.
Having been in and around the industry for years, we’ve picked up a nugget or two of outdoor styling know-how and continue to keep our green-fingers firmly on the garden furniture and styling pulse. So, we’re extremely happy to take some of the weight from your beleaguered bonce and suggest some key outdoor furniture trends that will become prominent in 2020.
Faux Wood Tabletops Take Centre Stage
For many rattan garden furniture sets, a table nicely brings the whole affair together and offers practicality through a surface to dine from or enjoy casual drinks and aperitifs. Recessed glass remains a popular choice but we’re seeing a light shone on a new surface in the outdoor furniture trends of 2020. The introduction of Polywood faux wood surfaces is causing some ripples. These extremely wood-like alternatives may offer a more sophisticated and traditional looking surface as well as comparable durability, they also often come in a very similar shade to the rattan wicker used across entire garden furniture sets.
Whereas glass will remain popular and may have the edge in terms of cleaning practicalities (wipe away quick), there’s no arguing the fact that these new textured and often slatted appearing table tops look incredibly refined. They also absorb and dispense heat from direct sunlight more effectively, whereas glass can have a tendency to reflect heat directly on those hotter days unless shaded with a parasol. Certainly, this year Bramblecrest has introduced their new ‘tree-free’ table range which features in a number of their rattan garden furniture sets. Keep a keen eye on our new garden furniture pages in upcoming weeks for these.
Create Warmth & Spectacle
Unanimously 2020 is swiftly becoming the year of the flame, certainly one of the outdoor furniture trends most talked about is, drum roll please … the gas fire pit. For us at IO Living HQ, this feature really imprinted its popularity on us when product-sourcing for this year, with many new upgraded options becoming available. Fire Pit! Oooooh, sounds enticing, doesn’t it? That’s because it really is! Both modern and quirky, the use of a fire pit implanted into a tabletop really is the next hot thing! Create warmth and spectacle in equal measure for your guests with a number of garden furniture sets that come with table’s having a hollowed-out middle compartment where a gas-operated fire heats the surrounding seated.
Recessed glass shields protect from direct interaction and double as a windbreak. The biggest benefit of having a fire pit is that it undoubtedly elongates social hours spent outdoors. Comfortably sit and converse with friends over some drinks long after the sun has dipped below the horizon, whilst creating a lovely ambience and literal warmth. It really is a social booster on all counts!
Longevity & Durability
As far as outdoor furniture trends go, this one is set to continue to receive attention. While there are various ways to achieve and go about it, this trend basically comes down to the popularisation of garden furniture with a particular technical feature; namely ‘weather resistance’. Now, it’s really no closely guarded secret that the UK and Ireland’s weather, even in the summer, is certifiably a mixed bag. Therefore, it’s very important that rattan garden furniture and indeed aluminium garden furniture offers ways and means of combatting these sodden, and sometimes unseasonably cold, climatic switches. Helpfully, garden styling manufacturers have been producing solutions for years. As standard with the Inside Out Living catalogue of outdoor furniture there is, and always will be, a large number of products with weather-resistance inbuilt.
Take any of our rattan furniture, for example. The material itself is naturally durable, lightweight and versatile, while rattan outdoor furniture is generally built to withstand any amount of water exposure and remain easy to wipe clean. What’s more prevalent is consumer awareness of upholstery that can deal with adverse weather. In the case of esteemed UK garden furniture specialists, Hartman, their Weatheready® technology is built into the cushions and can repel showers. Simply allowing heavier deluges to pass right through the permeable layers over time. Whereas the treatments now given to Aluminium Garden Furniture means their metallic frames are powder-coated to resist corrosion. Prepare for the unpredictable!
Classic Styling With A Modern Flavour
Cast Aluminium furniture is and always will be a garden styling favourite, which is why it retains a mention in this outdoor furniture trends roundup. However, a move towards aluminium garden furniture with modernity at its heart is getting plenty of attention in 2020. Think the traditional styling of the metalwork but rethought for a modern garden. In place of intricate weaving patterns inspired by floral inspirations, simple and cleaner lines take prominence. A rudimentary flat bar lattice or grate, in particular, seems to be a fashionable take on the traditional. Furthermore, differing colours enter the realm of Aluminium garden furniture styling in 2020 with further availability of Antique greys in replace of traditional bronzes and blacks.
Blurring Of The Indoors With The Outdoors
The clues in the name! It’s what we do best. All puns aside, this trend is ongoing through recent years. The figurative and physical extension of the home into the garden remains a huge factor in the choice of outdoor furniture for 2020. It is no longer strange or rare to see thick cushioned sofa sets in the form of rattan garden furniture placed lovingly on a patio. Nor is it odd to see a hanging cocoon-style chair slotted into a nook. The love we have always shown our interiors is wonderfully translating to our outdoor spaces, and long may it continue!
There are inevitably going to be more nuanced and further diluted outdoor furniture trends to unearth in 2020, but the above are our hot takes on what we think will help define spring/summer 2020 spent in the garden. We’re sure whatever additions you decide upon will aid the happy memories made outdoors this year.
