Style your outdoor dining space as carefully as your indoor room, says Holloways Interior Designer Annie Blackledge, and you'll have the perfect place to dine and entertain all summer long.
Gathering around the table with friends and family, delicious food and wine in hand, is one of life’s greatest pleasures. And at this time of the year, when the sun burns hot and evenings are long, creating an outdoor dining room brings lazy lunches and starlit suppers which linger long in the memory.
Annie helps clients across the country create outdoor rooms they love.
“When you’re designing your outdoor space, think about how you’re going to use it, with whom, and when,” says Annie. “Will yours be formal gatherings – a subtle, alfresco reworking of of the way your dining room works inside your home? Or are you more about relaxed BBQs and summer parties which start at sundown and go on long into the night?”
The new-season outdoor living collections at Holloways are designed to work for you and your lifestyle, to look good for years to come.
In contemporary gardens, the Goa is a show-stopper – a beautifully-mottled metallic finish made from HPL, a high-pressure laminate designed to withstand the thrills and spills of family life. Choose from three different, modern dining chairs with either smart rope detailing or this Lisboa wicker weave in Anthracite.
In more traditional gardens, the Chedworth ceramic-topped table seats eight comfortably in deeply cushioned dining armchairs in neutral Sandstone. Or try the Derby – timeless teak which will weather to a stunning silvery-grey – paired with these Lisboa dining chairs in cool Ice, or the neutral Avila outdoor dining chairs. Or the Bel Air outdoor teak dining table with these rope-backed Sempre dining chairs for cool Californian styling.
“Dress your outdoor dining room as you would your indoor table,” adds Annie. “A jug of flowers picked from the garden, LED candles – ours are incredibly realistic – beautiful tableware, sparking glasses and linen napkins will set the scene for an elegant lunch or dinner party.”
In more informal settings, a casual dining set works brilliantly – generously curved corner sofas wrap around ceramic-topped tables with plenty of room for dinner and drinks.
Some have adjustable-height tables, like the Monterey, to take you from lounging to dining in seconds. Others, like the 12-seater Chedworth, come with an integral gas fire pit and optional cooking grates, so you can BBQ at the table and then settle round the fire for a night under the stars.
“Add cosy throws and scatter cushions, and some pretty solar garden lighting from our showrooms and your guests won’t want to leave,” adds Annie.
